A New Morning
by LJ Summers
Summary: Post BD Canon. Jake & Renesmee travel from New Hampshire to Brazil and back to Forks and La Push as they redefine their relationships...for better and for worse... And as Nessie finds herself threatened by a vampire and his son out to redefine bloodlines.
1. Jacob: Yeah, life is weird So?

**Story Notes: Set six years after Breaking Dawn, it's the story of one way a "child imprinting" becomes an "adult imprinting." And how Jacob Black finally gets his happily ever after.**

**Some events added specifically for my fifteen-year-old son, who is also a Twilight fan.**

******_This is a work of derivative fiction. All things TWILIGHT are the intellectual property of Stephenie Meyer and/or her assignees. I write merely to entertain myself and others and receive no compensation._**

_Chapter Notes: In the tradition of Stephenie Meyer, I'm starting off with a tiny peek at a future tense moment before the story starts..._

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_**Preface**_

"What is it?" I hissed at my dad. "Is Jacob out there?"

"No," he shot back, not looking at me. "I heard Joham, though. He's...looking. Looking for – No!"

The challenge sounded immediately thereafter. "Well! I'm prepared to trade!" Joham's _voice_ I heard, but I didn't _see_ him.

A snarl ripped from both of my parents as they formed a stone wall in front of me – but I was too fast for them. No, I didn't see Joham, but I did see Nahuel. And he was holding a human in his arms.

A limp little girl. Named Claire.

I ran at speeds faster than human, around the perimeter of confused, frightened people. "Nahuel! Let her go! You can't do this to her!" I reached the cars, trying to find a good landing place for a jump.

He was standing on top of a blue pick-up, legs firmly spread. "Will you take her place, Renesmee? It is all the trade I want."

_**1. Jacob**_

Yeah. Life is weird. So?

My life was weird, by any normal standard. From the day the hereditary gene was triggered in me, things were strange. I went from being a teenaged boy, crushing hugely on a heart-sore girl, to being a shapeshifter with secrets and a body that matured to full adulthood in a matter of weeks.

And, after that same girl broke my heart I don't know how many times and got herself married and pregnant, I found myself crazily and undeniably devoted to – her daughter. _Imprinting_. It was something so out of the concept of reality, humans – regular humans – didn't even make up stories to explain it.

Yeah, it was weird. But, it was also the only way for me to live and after just a few months, it also seemed pretty – pretty _normal_. You know. For me.

My dad, Billy, didn't think so, though. "What the hell? Imprinting, Jacob? _On a Cullen?_" His face had gone red, then white as he gripped the wheels on his chair with white-knuckled fists. "Damn good thing I can't get to you, boy. Good thing you're so tall, too. She's a –"

I couldn't read minds like Edward, Nessie's father, but I knew enough to throw my hand up to stop Billy's flow of words. "Don't start, Dad. Just don't. Nessie's the most amazing little girl in the world, and I'm not gonna listen to you." She was, too, and I wasn't biased. Much. Everyone who met my Nessie was bowled over by her.

But for me, there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. It happened when she was only minutes old. When my heart had been broken into a thousand ragged shards and when murder burned in my blood. All I had had to do was look into those eyes... Eyes just like Bella's... before... And I was hooked.

Imprinted. Renesmee Carlie Cullen became my entire reason for drawing air into my lungs. For opening my eyes in the morning. Whatever was right for her, was right for me. Making her happy became my goal of the moment.

We were best friends, even when she was just a toddler. Of course she was a toddler when she was a month old. Awesome girl, my Nessie.

Billy didn't want to hear about it, though. My pack – me and Leah and Seth as well as a couple of the younger ones – got over it faster. Something about that whole communal brain thing made even thinking otherwise, well, _unthinkable_. They all knew the lack of choice I had. They had seen it with my eyes and their own. Wolf and human.

Billy didn't want to hear about it, but he's grown used to it. His one daughter married to surfer. His other the imprintee of another shapeshifter. Losing Sue Clearwater to Charlie Swan, of all the men in the state of Washington... And me, well. With Rachel and Paul with my dad, I knew he was being cared for, anyway. Me, I'm not at the Rez anymore. Not for years. Yeah, I guess it does look weird, on the surface. Big guy like me playing babysitter and best friend to a little girl... But what's a guy to do? At least she wasn't so little anymore.

What was really weird was _Bella_. She freaked out at first. But I guess that was no more strange than for her to have loved both a vampire and a shapeshifter. At the same time. Tore me up, I can say that. Nessie, though... She made it all make sense.

And today was her sixth birthday.

"Jacob? Where's my Jacob?" I was twenty-three years old and still couldn't help the jolt of happiness in my spirit when I heard that voice call me that. Being only – well, _sort of_ – human, though, the echo of that phrase, "my Jacob," would always breeze through my mind in Bella's old voice. Her human voice. From that one, stranger-than-strange night I spent with her and Edward.

Memories. Memories fade as if they were balloons floating into a vast, clear sky. But the impressions of that night were like those shiny, metallic balloons. I could see them for a long, long time as they drifted away from me. Memories of Bella, curved next to me, shivering and then warming. Memories of taunting Edward. He really wasn't such a bad guy. For a vampire. And the memory of Bella sleeping and murmuring, "my Jacob..."

But Renesmee Cullen's voice said it _better_. And I never had to wince when I thought of how she sounded, either.

"Nessie! Happy Birthday!" Dawn was climbing into the sky, here over New Hampshire. The Cullen family had moved after Bella's first year as a vampire. The reason, of course, was that Edward and Bella had gone to Dartmouth. He majored in Music (this time, as he used to say) and she in Native American Studies — which I thought was pretty cool. Both had been accepted there, but had managed to persuade the college to postpone their admission for a year after their marriage.

Made sense to me. I watched those two and they wouldn't have got much studying done at all that first year!

Weird, how that stopped mattering to me. The whole jealousy thing blew away the first time I looked into Nessie's chocolate eyes.

Those same eyes that were shining for me, now. Under a crazy mop of bronze curls and over a full-lipped smile that was almost too perfect to be for real. I held out my arms to her and she leapt into them, as she had since her first months of life. We had a system. She was maybe five and a half feet tall and almost an adult, according to everything we had all heard and figured out over the years. We still had a system.

We had been friends her whole life. I crossed the country for her – didn't have a choice, really – and had been ready to run with her to keep her alive, more than once, over the years.

Spinning her around, I watched her laugh and lean back to feel the wind in her hair. "Dizzy yet?"

"Yes!" she gasped. "Put me down!"

Gently, always, I did so. Then she stretched up to touch my cheek with her hand, watching my eyes as she showed me all about her night and the packing being done and how much her parents had managed to do while she was sleeping. It was faster, getting it in images like that and I had long grown used to her unique method of a morning report.

"And Dad recorded a new album for my birthday with all my favorites that he wrote this last year, and Mom gave me something, too..."

"What?" I wondered, lowering myself to the enormous boulder that had become my personal chair in the Cullen's yard, on the edge, here, near the maple trees, whose leaves were changing into mind-blowing oranges and reds.

Nessie hopped up next to me and took my hand in hers, absently, as she rested her head on her knees. "Girl stuff," she said, her own color washing into her creamy skin.

We sat and watched the sun climb a little higher into the sky. Silently. Most comfortable girl in the world, my Nessie. "So they're packing?" I asked.

"Yep. You all set?"

"Not really." As many years as I had been an unofficial part of the Cullens' extended family, I was feeling weird about this move. Brazil had never been a place I'd wanted to go. Oh, I'd studied, too. At the local community college. Worked nearby. Like the Cullens, I had a story to keep up. I didn't age, either. I was actually twenty-three, but I'd been looking about twenty-five – Bella made that age up for that first set of phony IDs, years ago, and it stuck – for the last six years. We wolves – shapeshifters – didn't age once we got settled into our wolf skins, I guess. I wouldn't start aging again until I quit phasing for a length of time, either. And, with a new move to a strange place...

I'd better keep my skins. Both of 'em.

"Want me to come help?"

"Sure, sure. Let's tell your folks." Why not? Nessie was no slouch and she'd probably have fun making sense of what stuff I had in my place. Not a whole lot of stuff, but I'd managed to earn a college degree myself – Associates Degree in Computer Drafting – and I had collected some books and stuff, too, in my little house on what I call The Cullen Complex.

Renesmee slid off the granite boulder and pulled me after her, acting for all the world like she was a six-year-old in body as well as in calendar pages. She looked like a sixteen-year-old, though, and was occasionally a bigger brat than Rosalie, but... She was still my Nessie.

Weird, how you can get used to someone being the gravity in your universe, you know? I never thought I'd get used to it. I used to roll my eyes at Quil when he would be babysitting Claire back in La Push. Of course, Claire was a normal human girl. She was about eight or nine, now. Quil was like a favorite big brother, to her. He didn't see any other faces, he told me, once. Not that he had a _thing_ for Claire, but that other girls just didn't even enter his mind. Not in any way that, like, _mattered_. As Renesmee dragged me to the quiet, conservative navy blue door of her house, I could imagine Claire dragging Quil around, too. We did email each other, keeping tabs on each other. Him with his pack and me with ... With mine. Small as it was. I was sending them home, though. Leah and Seth. That was why I hadn't packed, I guess.

It was going to be tough to leave.

I was still dwelling on it when the door opened and Bella appeared. "Hey, Bells!"

Seeing her, unchanged in these years, was weird too. Especially when I contrasted her unchanging face and body to the rapid changes in her daughter. Her voice sounded like a bell, melodious, but low and rich. "Hey, Jake!" She ruffled her daughter's hair with a loving smile in her dark eyes. I guessed she and Edward would be hunting, soon. "You're up early."

"Was up most of the night. My turn."

She nodded, her lips thinning a little. "Ah, of course. How's the packing?" The morning sun hit her skin just then, and she turned into a walking rainbow, just like the rest of them. It was something I had grown accustomed to, but it still bothered me on occasion. She was happy – no one could doubt that – and a confident, powerful woman in her own way. Bella Cullen was a knock-out.

Nessie rolled up on her toes, graceful as a dancer. Of course, she danced. She danced and sang and could work calculus in her sleep. I had watched her, once. She dreamed of the dry erase board and doing calculus... It was so typical of her. "He needs help, Mom. Thought I'd go over. He _said_," she went on, turning to roll her eyes at me, "that I had to ask, first."

Bella nodded. "All right, but make sure to let Jacob sleep when he gets tired, okay?" To me, she cocked her head a little. "Who else is there?"

"Seth is running. Leah's at school. It'll be cool."

Her nostrils flared just a little. "Fine." I wondered what was bothering her. That little worry-line was on her brow, again, making a shadow on her too-pale skin. "Ness," she said, sounding distracted, "go tell your dad. And change your clothes. Your Aunt Alice will have a fit if you –"

"I know! _ It's silk_," Nessie said, making her voice sound high, horrified and birdlike, like Alice's. Alice Hale, now. The Cullen Complex was filled with couples in their own houses, a big house where everyone mostly gathered in the afternoons and evenings, and... And a small, more private place where the non-Cullens lived, too. Those of us bound by treaty and heart and – in my case – a steel-cabled imprint to the family of Carlisle Cullen.

The public version of the story was like this:

Carlisle and Esme Cullen, childless, had adopted Emmett, Edward and Alice. The children had been Esme's cousins and at the death of the children's parents, Carlisle and Esme had volunteered to raise the youngsters as their own. Adopting them in name and everything. They had then taken on as foster children the Hale twins, Jasper and Rosalie. They had gone to school in Alaska and Washington. Emmett and Rosalie had married right out of high school and were now working in the area, when they weren't traveling the world. They did like to travel.

Alice had married Jasper Hale. They had a fashionable house – with enormous closets – on the east side of the property.

Edward had met and married Isabella Swan in Washington. Right after their wedding, they heard from a lawyer about an older brother who had been adopted into another family and previously lost. The brother had died and left his daughter, Renesmee, to the care of his long-lost brother and his new wife.

I was with the family because I was old friends with Bella, with an affinity for her daughter. I had worked for the Cullens as a mechanic – infuriating Rosalie, who loved tinkering with the incredible cars the Cullens kept for toys – and chauffeur, while I went to college and helped out with my god-daughter, Renesmee. Leah was my cousin, and she and her brother were here for the change of scene...

A little light on details, maybe, but I found out that if you told a story and told it well and stuck to it, then folks just tended to believe you. It was easier.

In reality, Renesmee was the biological daughter of Edward and Bella Cullen, conceived on their wedding night, as far as I've been able to figure, a little more than six years ago. And Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch of the family, was not a true father to any of them. He had, though, "made" Edward and Esme, then Rosalie and Emmett. Alice and Jasper wandered in in the late nineteen thirties, early forties, and became additions to this strange, non-human-blood-drinking vampire coven. Family, really. I'd seen _covens_ of vampires, and the Cullens were not like them.

Even the memories made my skin shiver in anticipation of a phasing. I automatically banked the fires and met Bella's eyes. "Okay, Bells. What is it?"

She couldn't blush anymore, but I knew she would be if she could. Isabella Marie Swan had been my best friend, back when the world had still been "normal" for me. Before I knew about werewolves and vampires and devastating heartbreak and imprinting... Yeah, back in the Old Days.

She sighed. "Never could hide much from you, could I?"

"Not even with your shielded brain, nope," I said, laughing a little as I looked down at the top of her head. The sunlight brought out the subtle red highlights and I thought it was a shame that not more people got to see those hidden shades. Bella couldn't spend time in the sunlight off the Complex anymore. Not really. "So what is it?"

"My baby is growing up?" she ventured, a helpless lilt in her voice. I remembered that Nessie had said something about "girl stuff," and wondered what on earth Bella had given the girl for her birthday. Bella sighed a little. "We got our new papers yesterday, you know."

I did know. I nodded. "Am I still Jacob Wolfe?" I asked wryly.

"The only one of us who didn't need a new passport, yep."

"So what _is_ it, Bells?" I reached out a hand to her and she took it in both of her own. "Is she campaigning for new breakfast cereal or something?" Nessie had started eating more human food in recent months and hunting less. It seemed to be working for her and I know I usually felt more comfortable that way.

Bella smiled a little. "No, Jake. I guess I'm just the mother of a teenage girl, right? Even if she's only six. And even if I'm only eighteen myself. You know, technically."

I chuckled and tousled her hair with my free hand. "Pretty creepy, Mrs. Cullen."

"I _know_."

The door burst open then, and Renesmee came flying out to me. Now, she was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with her favorite musical group on it. "I'm ready! Let's go!"

"Nessie, you go on," Edward said, coming up behind her and catching my eyes immediately. "Jake will be there in a minute."

"Oooookay," she said, setting off at a jog on the long-established path between their house and mine.

_What is it?_ I asked Edward Cullen, who gathered Bella next to him as naturally as breathing. Which they both still did, I guessed. Breathed. I gave him my version of the morning with his daughter – short as it had been – through my thoughts, out of habit. He and Bella had both required a lot of reassurances that first year. They had the natural notion that _Imprinting_ meant _Romance_... Like, automatically. Totally not true. Only on more grown-up couples did that enter into the relationship. For guys like me and Quil Ateara, Imprinting really just brought this one girl into the center of our worlds. Babysitter, big brother, best friend, whatever. Edward knew the depth of my total devotion to his daughter. I'd run with her, run _for_ her, give everything including my life for her. But he knew, because I know he peeked inside my head constantly, that I didn't feel romantic toward Renesmee at all. I adored her and always would, but that was as far as it went for me.

And, even though I might have missed the thrill of falling in love again, I couldn't imagine any other girl in Nessie's place in my life. Like Quil said, hers was the only face I saw.

Edward's brow lifted with wry amusement as a corner of his mouth kicked up. I recognized that expression. Strange, how I got used to these vampires. Nessie was half-vampire, and I had found I couldn't even call them "bloodsuckers" anymore. Nessie was a bloodsucker too... And I couldn't use that word on my girl. Unless I was teasing her.

"I wasn't going to say anything, but I decided it wouldn't be fair if I didn't, Jacob. You know we're assuming that Nessie will be fully mature by her next birthday."

A brief flurry of terror gripped my gut. _ Is she all right? Is something wrong?_ My heart jumped and ran in the worry of it.

"No, nothing like that. She's just... Almost an adult. She's only – half – human."

Confused, I looked to Bella to make it clearer. "What?"

"I didn't want to say anything. And you, Jacob Black, better not tell her you have any idea at all, you hear me? Bad enough her dad knows." She shot Edward a grimace. "Thing is, Jake, she's got a crush on a guy."

Edward smiled a little. "Can you blame her?"

Concerned for my Nessie, I frowned. "Who?" I ran through a list of possibles in my head. My eyes widened. _Seth?_ I asked Edward silently, not wanting to distress Bella at all if I could help it. Seth was a good guy, lots of fun, and he and Renesmee got along just fine.

Edward shook his head. I flashed a few other faces at him – convenient, really – while Bella watched both of us, concern knotting between her eyes. And Edward kept shaking his head.

"I'm stumped," I said, admitting defeat. "So what do you want me to do to this guy?" I asked the most protective father in New Hampshire. "Sniff out his house? Make sure he's okay? Slash his tires?" I chuckled.

Then, Edward kissed Bella's head and looked at me. "Just be gentle with her, Jacob. And try not to make her uncomfortable."

That went without saying. "Of course, but what do you want me to do about this guy? I mean, we're leaving anyway, right? So is that why it's a problem?" If Nessie had a crush on some guy, I completely understood. Didn't bother me except to think of how she might be hurt when we left him. I couldn't bear to see her in pain, even though I knew that some kinds of pain were necessary.

"She's developed this thing for a tall, dark and handsome guy who obviously thinks the sun rises and sets on her head, that's all. Can you blame her?"

I blinked. "Huh?"

"You dense wolf," Bella said, sounding both irritated and amused. "It's you."

They both studied my face, waiting.

"Me?" _Edward? Please tell me Bells is messing with me. Please. I don't need this. It's not supposed to be like this with us, Ness and me._

Then, Edward Cullen did a very rare thing. He closed the distance between us and reached up – he had to reach up, because I was six feet, eight inches tall and he was only about six feet himself – to put one hand on each of my shoulders. His hands were icy, but I ignored that. "She's completely serious, Jake. And I know how it is for you, so I'm just asking you to be gentle with her and don't let her know you know, if you can help it. We none of us want her to feel any more awkward. It's not her fault that I can read her mind."

"You know how I feel for her," I said. It was not a question. No one knew that better than Edward. So of course I felt really guilty about making her feel that way.

He shook his head, hearing my thoughts and answering _them_, not my words. "Don't feel guilty," he murmured, still gripping my shoulders. "Just be gentle."

I closed my eyes. "Yeah. But then, you knew I would be, didn't you?"

"Of course," Bella said, stepping up and putting her stone-cold arm around me. "Because you're a good guy, Jake."

I sighed and moved away from them. "Sure, sure. I guess I better go. I've got this teenaged girl trying to pack my gear so we can move to Brazil, remember?"

Edward and Bella both grinned up at me. "We know."

"Later."

Great. What do you do when the girl you've Imprinted gets a crush on you? Can't avoid her. Can't say things to make her _not_ like you, even if it makes you uncomfortable. All you can do is try to ignore it.

"Hey! I think I've got a monster in my house!" I bellowed when I opened my door on the other side of the copse of trees.

Her voice came from the floor behind my sofa, where she was boxing books. "Ha, ha, Jacob! Nessie is extinct, but you're stuck with me!" Her impish grin as she peeked over the leather upholstery was the same as it ever was.

That was a relief. I was stuck with her. For the rest of my life. "Yeah, well be careful with my books or I'll find some convenient lake to dump you in."

She chucked a copy of _The Deerslayer_ at me. Brat. I caught it in one hand and laughed. "Promises, promises," she chanted.

A crush on me? Didn't seem like it. She was still acting like a favored cousin or something. Maybe Edward Cullen was wrong?

I tossed the book back to her. "Good catch," I said, as she snagged it in midair without even looking.

Her eyes, very briefly, gleamed like melted chocolate and I disciplined myself not to groan. Nope, he wasn't wrong.

This was just too weird. _Be gentle_, Edward told me.

Like I had a choice?


	2. Nessie: I just want to die Right here

**A/N 1: Below, please meet Renesmee. Nessie, as she generally prefers to be called. She starts off sounding very much the teenager, but grows up by story's end, I promise. This story has 20 chapters, plus an epilogue. Just so you have an idea. **

**I hope you enjoy meeting her! ~ LJ**

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_**2. Nessie**_

I just want to die. Right here. In the plane.

"This is the coolest, ever!" I gushed, leaning over my Jacob to stare out the window. "Chartering a plane? How fun is that?" With Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie, Uncle Jazz and Aunt Alice, Mom and Dad and me and Jacob, we would have needed more than the first class compartment of a regular commercial jet to keep us all comfortable. That and it was usually better to travel alone if we were in a large group. We usually would drive places, but this was too far to drive, really, and too many countries to get through and too many political worries between New Hampshire and Rio São Tomás in Brazil.

Abruptly conscious that I probably was acting like the six-year-old I was instead of the young woman I wanted to be, I blushed and moved back. Jacob smiled into my eyes, his own dark and playful, just like always. I never really understood why he was with me, but he was. He and Mom had been friends when they were younger, and their families had always been close. It was like Mom wanted to keep some part of her family with her, so she kept Jacob. Grandpa Charlie couldn't just leave his job and everything whenever we had to move. But my Jacob made it his job to be with us. And he was my best friend in the whole world. I was _glad_ he wasn't a vampire. I was glad he was more human, like I was. I felt like we were kind of the same. Except that he phased into a wolf every day and I could put stuff into his head.

So I did now, shifting in the comfortable leather seat of our chartered jet and placing my hand against Jacob's cheek. He rolled his eyes at me. "Can't you just tell me?" he asked for the hundredth time.

"Better this way," I answered for the hundredth time. I showed him what he missed while he was taking his friends to their plane at the airport. I knew they were shape shifters, like he was. They got a chartered jet, too. Grandpa Carlisle made sure of it. We Cullens always travel better than first class.

Am I a brat? Yeah. My Jacob says I am. But I knew he liked me that way, so I kept being a brat. I wondered, though, all of a sudden, with my hand on his firm jaw, if _that_ was the problem. Maybe...

I had started off showing him the tour I got of the cockpit of the jet, and how there was food in the galley for him and for me. But my mind wandered and I forgot to take my hand from Jacob's face as I thought about being a brat. I wondered if maybe I should be different, somehow. More like Mom or Aunt Rosalie...

Auntie Rose was beautiful. And so was my Jacob. Just beautiful. His hair was thick and gleamed like black satin. His skin was russet brown and just slid over him, molding muscles and bone together like a living sculpture. Dark eyes, practically black, but not black like when the rest of the family needed to go hunting. No, my Jacob had beautiful black eyes. Dancing and fun and warm. And he was huge! More than a foot taller than I, all of it solid muscle. Totally hot. Totally gorgeous.

He coughed, and the connection between his face and my hand was broken. "Uh, thanks, Nessie," he murmured. Couldn't tell, with his beautiful dark skin, but I thought maybe he was blushing and I just wanted to die.

Right there. In the plane.

I bit my lip and tried not to cry. I really needed to work on my self-discipline around my Jacob. I knew that. I did. I wanted to be more like Mom. She was special. I had heard Dad joke with her about her "super self-control" and all that. I thought her skill was her shield. That was really cool. But her super self-control was something else. I had asked Dad, once, and he said it was a part of her that she had had the moment she woke up as a vampire. Uncle Emmett laughed and told me stories about that day. Uncle Jazz still looked surprised whenever he told me _his_ version.

Jacob, though, didn't say a whole lot about it. Like I said, I can't pull thoughts out of people's heads. I really wished, though, that I could, sometimes. Just out of _his_ head. Just out of my Jacob's.

"Um, I'm going to, um, get a magazine from the shelves. Want anything?" I asked, not able to look at him. He was staring out the window, now, but I could tell he wasn't seeing the soft clouds or the hints of the mountains, far below us. "I could ask Sheilah to get you a soda, if you want?"

"Sure, sure," he murmured, flickering a glance at me. It was... Not uncomfortable. Not laughing, either. Just... Just gentle, I guessed. "A coke would be good."

"Okay. Be right back."

"I'm not going anywhere," he told me.

I blushed again and got away from him before I spontaneously combusted.

_Dad!_ I thought, before I even turned to the back of the chartered jet, where he was sitting with Mom. Uncle Jazz caught my eye and lifted a brow as I sped by. His scarred skin was really obvious, to me, but I was so used to it I could see through the scars to the way-too-sensitive man. He knew I was freaked out. Embarrassed beyond comprehension. What he didn't know was that I wanted to just jump out of the plane and land somewhere over East Texas...

I waved off Uncle Jazz's concern and nudged my chin toward my father. Uncle Jazz relaxed and smiled a little at me. Did he know? He might! He sensed emotions and he might!

No point in asking Aunt Alice, though. I knew that already. She had a blind spot with werewolves and with me...

My dad, of course, was already listening to me. I could see him, his eyes like butterscotch in his pale face. He looked really young, I guess. Mom told me once that he was only seventeen when he had been reborn. She had been eighteen or nineteen, depending on which of my aunts and uncles I asked. They were both so young. I was not like them. Would I get older? Older than my Jacob?

The thought disturbed me.

Mom rose from her seat and met me in the aisle. "Renesmee," she murmured, hugging me briefly. "Go sit with your dad. I'll hang out with Jake."

I practically melted into the fuselage. She _knew_. They _all_ knew. Okay, maybe not, but it felt as if they did. At least vampires weren't like the wolf pack. They didn't all share their thoughts with each other all the time.

Only Dad actually heard mine, I reminded myself. Only my dad. He held out his arms to me as I reached the seat my mother had vacated. I climbed into his lap and buried my face against his hard shoulder. Just as if, once again, I was six years old instead of the young woman I so wished I could be.

_Daddy, this is so embarrassing. I know you know and I'm sorry you have to hear my head and I wish I didn't and I wish I could just jump out of the airplane._

His arms tightened around me as he whispered very softly into my ear, so as not to let anyone else hear, over the noise of the jet engines. "Honey, you don't have to feel that way."

_He'll hate me forever! He'll turn around and head back to – back to La Push! He'll, he'll leave me! Who'd want to stick around with a girl with a ridiculous crush? Maybe I'll go live with Grandpa Charlie. Maybe I should. Maybe I should just disappear. What if –_

"Hush, love. Hush." Tears burned in my eyes but I tried to keep them from dripping on Dad's thin white shirt. "Jacob Black isn't going anywhere."

_But Dad! He knows! I just know he'll treat me like a leper or something_. I showed Dad what had happened. I didn't have to touch his face at all, so I could keep mine buried.

"Do you honestly think that he'd desert you over something like that? He knows what he looks like, honey. And you've been careful, right, not to try to watch him phasing in or out?"

That was a rule. A rule that even my Jacob never ever broke. Ever. I had seen him as a wolf, of course, and we hunted together and all that, but I never ever saw him phase back into being a human again. He would take me home and run off and hide and I couldn't see in his mind to see what happened.

_No. But..._ I felt my blush coming on with almost searing heat. _I wanted to. _There was something oddly comforting about talking to my father, even about stuff like this. A girl was normally supposed to be able to talk to her mother about all the male-female stuff. Sex. Romance. All that. But for me, it was better with my dad, since I knew he knew it all anyway and not only that, but he knew how I was feeling all the time so nothing was ever misconstrued. He wasn't creeping me out; he was just making sure that I was understood at all times. I was the luckiest girl in the world.

So now, I knew he wouldn't be shocked or laugh or chide me. "Of course you did. That's only natural. Jacob's a very well-made person."

I had to laugh at that. _Well made? You make him sound like a table or something. Or a work of art._

"Isn't he, to you?"

I sighed and met Dad's eyes. "Yeah," I breathed. "I guess he is." I touched my hot forehead to my dad's cold one. _ What do I do, Daddy? _

"That depends on what you want, Nessie."

My heart lurched and I was really glad we were in an airplane. The noise of the engines should mask the sudden uneven thudding sound to a plane full of silent-hearted vampires with ultra-amped hearing. _What I want? I want him to stay with me forever, that's what I want._ No use not telling Dad; he knew already.

I felt him sigh into my hair before his eyes tightened a little around the edges. "Fair enough. But what do you think he wants? He's an adult, honey. Not a boy. If you're wanting him to stay with you forever, you have to remember that. Also, I'm not sure, to be honest, how long _forever_ is for a shapeshifter."

Pain sliced through me so sharply that I gasped and stared, agonized, into my dad's eyes. His were sympathetic but very direct. I didn't know how long it would be for me, either, but I hadn't thought of that before. "He's getting older, I knew it. And it isn't fair to make him stay with me..."

I heard Dad grind his teeth. "Renesmee, you're very young, for our kind."

_Oh, Dad, please, not that one,_ I protested. I was in pain and he was going to go off on a numbered parental lecture?

He frowned briefly and bracketed my face in his marble palms. "He won't leave you. I just know that you can't make anyone love you. All you can do is try to earn their love and hope." He sighed and kissed my forehead very lightly. His lips were frigid, to me, but they were my dad's and so I knew the love was there in the cold, smooth surfaces. "When you care for someone, care for them so much it hurts, you have to put their needs above your own. Can you do that? I'll tell you a secret." My eyes latched to his. "I had to, once, and it just about killed me."

_For Mom?_

He nodded.

_I'm not that strong..._

"Neither was I."

_I'll have to think about this, Dad... _

"Remember, Nessie. Jacob Black won't leave you. Just... Just try not to –"

I had to laugh, humorlessly but laugh, at my father's obvious discomfort. "Try not to watch him phase, I know." I climbed off of his lap and rolled into my mother's seat, next to him. _Can I stay here?_

"Of course. Why don't you go to sleep?"

_Promise not to watch me dreaming?_ I asked, sliding my eyes closed with a small smile.

He laughed and loosely clasped my hand. "I'll do my best. Just try not to be too loud, all right?"

**

* * *

**

**Coming up: Jacob undergoes a rather radical change...**


	3. Jacob: Not even what I expected

**A/N 1: What happens when the relationship slides from "being friends" to "being more?" What happens when this happens and no one is really talking about it but everyone is probably thinking about it? **

**Just ask Jacob and Nessie. They can probably write a book about this... Eventually. ;-)**

**LJ**

_**3. Jacob**_

Not _even_ what I expected.

What do you do when the girl you adore, the center of your universe, to whom you're totally devoted finds she wants something more than anything else in the world?

You get it for her. Do it for her. Whatever it is, if it's good for her, you make it happen. Eagerly, enthusiastically, happily.

If she had wanted to learn to scuba dive, I would have learned how first, so I could teach her. She did want to learn to drive, but since she was too young, back home, I kept her happy with showing her how her mom's Ferrari worked. If Nessie wanted to learn how to cliff dive – her mother had – I would have shown her, terrified, but making sure every precaution was in place, holding her next to me and jumping. If she needed to just talk, away from her parents and in strictest confidence, I would have listened for hours, totally involved.

What was I supposed to do with _this_? What could I do when I would do anything for her, _be_ anything for her and what she wanted...

Was _me_?

The mortification, the personal pain on her face when she had slipped in her "sharing" had been rough on her. Oh, I had my moment of embarrassment but, really, it isn't entirely a bad thing to be seen as she sees me. If I were any other guy, I'd be all _over_ her, probably, and enjoying that. But I'm me.

And that moment had been a little rough on me, too. Because of how it made her feel. I know how it feels to care for someone in an unequal way. I remember. I can't tell her that, because it would cause a few people some really uncomfortable moments, including myself.

Bella didn't allude to any of that when she took Nessie's place at my side for the next leg of the trip to Brazil. We talked about the new place, about her research, and plans for Nessie's future. Insofar as we could make any, anyway.

Still, I knew that a part of myself was in the back of the plane, sitting next to Edward Cullen. A huge part of myself. A part of myself I held in the highest.

My Nessie.

A cold finger prodded my arm. "Jake?"

"Yeah, Bells. I'm okay." Something, though, wasn't okay. Something was itching, in my chest. My head. Something between irritation and anticipation and a slow, deep burn that I hadn't felt in...

Well, in years. Not since Bella had given birth to Renesmee Carlie Cullen.

I pretended to doze off, because suddenly I was thinking not so much of Quil Ateara and his Claire but more of Sam and Emily, Paul and my sister and Jared and Kim.

Calling upon all the energy I used _not_ to phase when I was angry, I made breath come and go in a normal, sleeping rhythm. Maybe Bella would get bored and go sit with someone else. I had to work my head around this.

Imprinting on a female, a young woman, was not a _fraternal_ companionship opportunity. When Paul – the images still made my gorge rise on occasion – Imprinted upon my sister, he looked as I must have looked for those first few months after Renesmee was born. Like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. Amazed. Delighted. Awed. And, too, he _wanted_ her. Wanted her the way a man wants a woman. To hold her, kiss her, caress her. Get her pregnant. Hey, that was a part of it, too, I knew that.

My sister, being only human, couldn't resist the intense devotion, the total commitment. They had two kids, already. It was weird.

But no one told me how it worked when someone Imprinted on a kid. Quil's Claire was still a child so he couldn't help me, there. What was I supposed to do?

_Be gentle._ Of course. My life was bound to her. Another year until she was fully adult, as far as anyone knew. According to another half-breed we had met back when the Volturi – sounded like a plural of _vulture_, to me – tried to wipe out the Cullen family. Bella had made arrangements for me to run with Nessie for the first time, then. Jacob and Vanessa Wolfe...

Nahuel. I remembered the name. Son of a vampire named Joham. Joham had proven elusive, though Jasper and Emmett had hunted for him. Nahuel was a harmless type, as far as I can remember. He was the one who had said that he was "adult" at the age of seven. That had been, then, the only indicator we had as we watched Renesmee grow. It had been a huge relief to me to see him. Huge. As soon as I saw him and heard his story, I had hope that my Nessie would not age and die and be gone from the world by the age of fifteen or so. I could breathe without worrying about the future.

Much.

That unusual, fidgety sensation continued in my body and I jerked into a more awake state. Bella was still with me. She smiled. "You're done napping?"

Did she know I hadn't been sleeping or was she being polite? I shrugged. "For now, I guess. So how much longer 'til we get where we're going and are we going to look up any of your friends right away or wait 'til they find us?"

Bella nodded. "Well, you know we've got friends not far from where we are settling for a while, so it's likely we'll run into them soon. Do you remember Zafrina and her coven?"

"She did the images and stuff, right?" I asked, frowning. Nessie really loved her "pretty pictures."

Bella nodded. And then, she frowned a little. "Could be we'll be seeing the young, ah, well, the one who is like Renesmee, too."

I leaned back in my seat, irritated and annoyed. Itching, fidgeting inwardly, feeling that strange sensation sort of crawling under my skin, in my heart and mind. And the burn. That deep, elemental sort of change... I inhaled deeply through my nose, getting that icy stink from Bella but wanting to find Nessie's unique scent.

It was overlapped by way too many vampires.

"When do you think we'll get there?" I asked next, just to have something to be thinking about that wasn't that other half-vampire I remembered from the Volturi encounter after Nessie was born.

Bella eyed me narrowly, but went ahead and answered my questions, burdened with half a hundred details I didn't really need to know. She had developed a thing for trivial information since becoming a vampire. I didn't get it.

I felt, eventually, the gradual descent. The pilot informed us we were going to refuel before the last leg of our journey to Brazil. "Will I have a moment to stretch my legs?" I asked my best friend, who was still sitting with me.

She looked bewildered. "I haven't a clue. Last time I was here was on a commercial flight for our honeymoon." Her smile was filled with secrets but I was fairly sure what they were about anyway. Renesmee Carlie Cullen had indeed fixed what was broken inside of me, but my memories would never be fully gone. Worst weeks of my entire life.

I decided to ask Bella something. "How much do you remember, from before? I mean, with the new and improved brain and all that, is it easier or harder?"

She flashed me a pained expression. "The memories are dark, blurry," she whispered. "But there. I'm –"

I halted her by the simple means of pinching her lips together with my fingers, "Nope. Don't want the millionth apology, Bells. I'm saving it for something important." I smiled easily into her amber eyes. "Just wondered, is all. Nessie's memories are still really clear, and sometimes I wonder if that's just because she is who she is or what."

Sometimes, Bella was very easy to please. She wrinkled her nose up at me. "She just wants to impress you."

"Color me impressed."

Her bell-tone voice grew low and serious. "We're counting on it, Jake. You have to know how much we all rely on you. Trust you."

This came at me like a double-barrel shotgun blast, really. Because I was, while talking with her, paying attention to my own strange fidgety reactions; I knew what was happening all of a sudden, and it was surprising as hell. Also, I was getting the "We trust you do to the right thing" message from Nessie's mom who was _also_ my best friend. Talk about a complicated relationship! I could remember – terror is a great memory-enhancer – the day we faced the Volturi. I remembered when Bella put Nessie on my back and told me to run with her if the whole situation went to hell. She entrusted her daughter to me for the rest of my life. I remember, too, when Edward told me goodbye, back when we thought it was going to be forever. Icy hand on my furry shoulder, he called me his brother and his _son_.

Nessie was only a little girl, then. But vampire memories being perfect, I know they remembered all that, too.

Kinda colored the situation when, almost six years later, that little girl who was perched between my shoulder blades is a nearly-grown young woman... Who still, on occasion, will ride on my back in the woods on a hunt.

Quil should never have to deal with this.

The plane landed and I needed to see Nessie. "So," I asked her mom, "if I go back and ask her to sit with me again, do you think she will?"

Bella smiled her old smile. She would always be _Bella_ to me, renovations notwithstanding. "I'm sure you'll be able to persuade her, Jake. And thank you."

"I want her to be happy, Bells, you know that."

"I know," she assured me quietly, rising gracefully from the leather seat. "We all do."

I got to my feet pretty fast, too, since we were in the front row. I picked her up out of my way, startling her into a laugh. Edward's brow arched into his forehead.

_Just want to get to Nessie first, is all, and there's no room for more than me on this aisle. _

He smiled and whispered something to the bronze-curled girl beside him. I saw her eyelids flicker open and made sure I was smiling in my usual way when she found me. I ignored Bella's protests behind me. They were just for show.

The plane landed a little roughly and I balanced myself out, but still found it easier to fall to my knees by Nessie's seat. Her melted chocolate eyes widened in surprise.

"Don't worry, Nessie. I won't fall on you. I just should have buckled in, I guess."

"Yes! Are you all right, Jacob?"

I grinned at her, ignoring the eyes-only conversation between her folks taking place over our heads. "My knees are fine. But really," I went on in a whisper, "I wish you'd come back up and sit with me."

A blush shone lightly under her luminescent skin. "Okay. You, um, sure?" she asked, biting her lip with teeth I knew were really, really sharp. Instead of the old memory, though, new images slid into my imagination and I blinked on my own, hopefully-invisible blush.

And nodded firmly. "You bet. You want the window?"

**~*~*~**

**Next chapter: Enter Nahuel...**


	4. Nessie: I'm not up for auction!

**A/N 1: Thanks so much for the reviews and comments! :) I enjoy hearing from folks and knowing they want to find my work again. **

**So! Let's join Jacob and Nessie (and Edward and Bella) in the rainforest, where they're on their way to their new home...**

_**4. Nessie**_

I'm not up for auction!

"Jacob, look!" I tugged on his arm and pointed out the window. Night's dark colors gleamed for my eyes and for his as we studied the overhanging greenery on our way to our new home. Animal eyes blinked in tandem as they watched the cars that drove near them on the rough road.

"You don't have to whisper," Jacob whispered. I smiled up at him, catching the turning corner of his smile as I leaned over him to see out. Okay, I could have been looking out my window, but it was more fun to look out of his. Then we saw the same thing. Then I wasn't tempted to share with him what I had seen.

I didn't want to mess up again!

"I know," I answered him, still whispering because I knew it would make him smile. I loved his smile. "How long now?" I asked him in a soft-normal voice.

"I don't know about you, or your parents, but I've been up for more than twenty-four hours. I'm beat."

Concern flooded through me. "Why don't you try to sleep now, then, Jacob? In the car? We probably have a long ride, still." I didn't touch his face, but I did clasp his hand. We had always been able to hold hands without a slip.

He encompassed my smaller hand in both his large ones. "Can't, yet, hon. Just a little keyed up right now."

I tensed. "What's wrong?"

He hesitated a moment and ducked his head closer to mine. I felt my heart skip over and that was really, really embarrassing. He could hear it. My parents could hear it! Sometimes, I just wished....!

I loved my life, but sometimes it made me crazy.

His voice came low over my ear. "I'm feeling edgy, you know? Like I need to run a patrol before I can crash human."

"Oh, well that makes sense," I said in the same type of tone. "I mean, it's been more than a day since you phased, right? Of course you want to run. Heck, I'd like to run, too." I smiled sunnily at him, feeling the heat from his skin wash over me. It was wonderful.

He lifted his head, though, and stared out the window again. "No way, Nessie. Not 'til I've got a feel for the place, okay?" Tension hardened his voice. "I can't let you out there, yet." I think he tried to smile as he released my hand with one of his and wrapped his arm around me. Had to be like a brother or friend. I tried not to read anything into it. His voice was back to normal when he added, "First I gotta go find the bad guys, remember?"

He was bringing up an old game we used to play when we first moved to New Hampshire, and I rolled my eyes. "Fine, be that way."

"You could go to sleep, though, if you want. No bad guys, here."

I shook my head and tried hard _not_ to lean into his side, though I wanted to. Desperately. "I'm fine," I managed to say. "Really."

"If you take a nap now, though, you can help me when we get to where we're going."

I perked up. "Help? How?"

He laughed softly and tucked me closer against himself, keeping his voice quiet. "Well, you packed all my stuff, right? So you can find it and make sure it gets to wherever I'm supposed to be staying, at the station, or whatever we're calling it. I'd really appreciate the help since I gotta go run that patrol. It'd be nice to be able to come back and crash."

The conversation in the front seat continued. Dad and Mom kept up with the pretense that they couldn't hear us, which was just fine with me. I knew Dad was listening to everything anyway.

_Hi, Dad._

I caught his butterscotch gaze in the mirror as he winked at me. Then, his gaze shifted to Jacob and he lifted both brows, as if he were saying, _Oh, really?_

I shifted my focus to Jacob's face, tilting my head back against his arm. His jaw was firm, his eyes direct as he met my father's in the mirror. Then, they both nodded.

"Great, keep me out of the loop," I muttered.

"I'll update you later. If you take a nap," Jacob murmured into my hair. I felt him shift a little on a diagonal and that actually helped, because I wound up leaning comfortably into him. Because he _wanted_ me to.

I guessed I was tired, after all, because my eyes shut and I took one deep breath before I passed out, Jacob's woodsy skin-scent filling my mind.

"Hey, Nessie. Wake up."

I was curled up on the black leather seat of the car, Jacob's scent only an afterthought in my nose. "Huh? What happened?" I blinked and tried to sit up, but my muscles ached oddly. The gentle fingers that pushed the hair from my forehead were marble. "Mom?"

Her smile came into focus. "Sorry, darling. I let you sleep as long as it was safe, but we're going to be having some company soon, and I thought you ought to have some time to, ah, freshen up."

"Shower, shampoo and shine?" I asked wryly. Being half-human, I had maintenance issues. "Where's Jacob?" I asked, pushing myself up slowly. My inner clock wasn't working right.

Mom helped me out of the car, standing between me and the low-lying sun. "He's out running a patrol like he said he had to. With your dad." At my questioning look, she elaborated softly. "It's safer if Jake has one of us with him, and he can tell stuff to your dad without phasing."

I thought about that a moment. "Safer? Animals?"

"Humans and vampires, darling."

My imagination flooded with frightening images of what could happen if my Jacob were alone and caught by the vampires I knew lived not far away from here. Heart thudding in alarm, I gasped. "He shouldn't be doing that!"

Cool fingers brushed my cheek and I looked down a little at my mother's head, surprised that I seemed, once again, to be another nudge taller than she was. "They'll be fine. Both of them. Now, let me show you around. For starters, we'll all be sharing the compound, but we asked for separate quarters for Jacob."

"Like at home." I smiled fondly in memory of a hundred exasperated expressions. He hated the smell of vampires, even after all these years. My smell he said wasn't so bad, since I was half human. Weird. He had been with me since the day I was born and was used to me.

"Like at home," Mom echoed with a smile of her own. She led me from the car, sunlight exploding on her skin like nuclear diamonds. "All right. Now, you know we've had construction crews working on this for a while. It's looking really nice. Just needs our stuff to make it feel more like home."

I tried not to search for Jacob while I got the tour; I knew he was probably miles into the tropical rainforest by this time, my dad probably running at his side. So I made myself focus on the building. I wasn't sure what to expect, so my surprise would have been total in any event.

Sunlight is not a necessary prerequisite for my family, of course, but it was needed as a sort of natural accessory. A prop. We had to give off the idea of being human. Pale and hermit-like in our way of life, but human. So the clearing that I was walking in was completely necessary. Low stone walls rimmed the reddish dirt under my feet. Just behind me was the oh-so-necessary Cullen Garage. To my left was a small place, made of river rock, polished smooth and gleaming with quartz crystals in the sunshine. "Is that Jacob's place?" I asked Mom.

"Yep. And yes, I know you said you'd help get his stuff unpacked while he was running patrol, but first you have to see the rest of our home, all right?" Mom tugged at me, as if knowing my first interest would be with Jacob and not my own room.

Well, she was right!

I saw my family, flitting in and out of the house with boxes and packaging and picture frames. Grandma Esme and Grandpa Carlisle were probably already at work, decorating the main library and work rooms. Aunt Alice flitted to us and came to an abrupt halt. "Nessie! Had a good nap? Good! I want you to come see your closet!"

Mom laughed. "You're irrepressible," she told my aunt. "I'll get her up there when I've shown her the rest."

Aunt Alice pouted dramatically before flinging her arms out. "Fine! Let her walk around in a wrinkled shirt!" And she was gone.

I got the tour of the house. In New Hampshire, we had a few separate buildings, so that each couple had their own space, but in Washington, I know that the family all lived in one house, except when Mom and Dad got married. Grandma Esme built them a house of their own. It was a newlywed thing. Besides, I was born and then there was a room for me, away from the nonstop busy-ness of the main house.

Here, we would all be living in one house. The walls were heavy glass, with light sheers over them. Rain collectors, too, because conserving natural resources was almost a must to get building permits, down here. Light, airy rooms with private niches tucked away in surprising places filled the two main floors. There was a kitchen, too, suitable for a family of ten, including Jacob. Only Jacob and I would be actually using the kitchen, though. "It helps," Grandpa Carlisle had told me once. "Helps everything to feel used and lived in."

Whatever worked!

The bedrooms were on the top floor, the work rooms and living areas and music areas on the main floor. The lowest floor, built into the natural slope of this landscape, was a science lab. A research station. In addition, there was a place for Mom to keep her own research, anthropological though it was.

"Now, your room is right here," Mom told me, leading me down to the end of a long hallway. I didn't see a lot of doors on the way. "We had it soundproofed for you, Nessie." She smiled a little. "And maybe for us, too! We won't have to worry about waking you, now!"

I blushed a little and quickly ran ahead of her so she wouldn't see. I knew exactly what she didn't want me to hear. Did she think I never, ever woke up in the dark? That I never had seen or heard anything of the private life she and my father shared together? Ever? Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rosalie weren't what I called "subtle," either. I didn't go peeking on purpose, understand. But I didn't have to. Sometimes, just being awake at two in the morning was enough!

Ah, but maybe Dad already knew that. Hence the soundproofing? Could be!

"This is beautiful." I spoke to the room that was now mine, but I knew Mom had come up silently behind me. Unlike the rest of the house, this room had regular walls like the buildings I saw online and in magazines. Walls and windows with shutters. Skylights, electric lights, and a bathroom with an enormous tub and huge shower. I grinned. "Oh, Mom, I love it." Decorated in rich, woodsy hues – my favorites, as my grandmother knew – I already saw several of my favorite things standing about. Carvings from my Jacob, that he gave me every year. Small sculptures from France and Greece that my aunts and uncles brought for me when they traveled. My bed was the only bed used exclusively for sleeping. I bounced on it. "Oh! Air mattress? Like one of those number beds?"

"Exactly. We had thought to get foam, but this will be cooler, for you. Now, you best check out your closet or your aunt will think I've neglected the most important thing in the universe."

I giggled and leapt to my closet's open double doors. It was dominated not by hanging dresses, but by a huge armoire. "Ah, she remembered," I sighed happily.

Mom stood in the open door, watching me rummage eagerly through the lingerie. Lingerie, for me, was the epitome of feminine clothing. Outer wear served its purpose, yes, but the clothes next to the skin were _personal_. Aunt Alice enjoyed this, too, and she and I had oohed and aahed for months over pretty, silky underthings. And cottons, too, since the move had been finalized. "You're human remember," my aunt had cautioned. "And _your_ skin needs to breathe."

"Mmm." I burrowed my fingers through silks and laces and grinned at the embroidered cotton camisoles. "These are so pretty!"

Mom grinned at me. "I know that Alice is thrilled."

I shooed her out so I could undertake my human maintenance and closed the door. "Remember," Mom called as she walked down the hall, "we're expecting guests, soon!"

I felt on edge and didn't care to see any guests. I just wanted to see my Jacob. Just somewhere on the premises. It wouldn't feel like home to me until I saw him in it, I guessed. I smiled at my silly reflection and then studied it a little. My hair was pretty, so that was good. Messy, but a shower would help that. I looked nice. Not beautiful like Mom or Auntie Rose but nice enough. I could see I'd need to make sure on the new lingerie, though. To make sure everything fit... Yeah. Unusual developments all around.

I shook my head, feeling silly and vain as I ducked into the shower. It didn't take long to get dressed in a pair of light khaki shorts and green camp shirt, along with a pair of loafers. I combed out my hair and considered mascara. Decided against it. I didn't want to look like I had dressed up for anyone. I didn't want Jacob to feel uncomfortable. It would be better just to act like myself.

Trying to listen for the visitors' arrival, I was thwarted – a word I had always wanted to use – by the soundproofing on the walls. Annoying! I didn't see who had come to visit until I reached the first floor of our new home.

And saw two new vampires, one with the burgundy-hued eyes of human-hunters, one with eyes the color of the darkest of woods. Was he a human-hunter, too? It seemed likely. Families tended to hunt together... I know mine did.

I tried very hard not to show my distaste as I approached them. Dad wasn't back yet, but Mom was talking to them pleasantly enough, as was Grandpa Carlisle.

"Nessie, you've met our guests before but –"

"But I was pretty young then, right?" I said, finding a smile for them and putting it on my face. Where was my Jacob? I needed him!

The older visitor smiled at me with real enthusiasm. "Good morning," she said, her voice luxurious somehow, in a way that made me think of commercials I saw for fine liquor online and on television. Approaching me, she kept her hands folded in front of her, though her expression was eager. She inhaled deeply. "Ah, you smell much like my Nahuel. Come here," she said to the young man who had come with her.

And I blinked. He was...beautiful. A smile slowly split his face and I could see the familiar sheen of venom coating his teeth. He had venom? I didn't have venom. I was thankful beyond words, too, because I had bitten Jacob a hundred times in the first week I was alive and he would have died if I had venom.

"Renesmee," the visitor said, approaching me with his hands extended in greeting. "I would have known you anywhere."

"Me?" I squeaked, disconcerted by the strange familiarity I felt practically throbbing from his whole body. As if he felt he had some claim to me, maybe. It was unnerving. "I do not remember you." That was odder than he knew; I remembered everything.

He took my hands in his. "Of course not. It was years ago. But I have waited, with great anticipation, to see you again. Truly, Renesmee."

His teak-hued skin had a faint, lustrous quality that I had only seen on my own, even here, within the house. Dark eyes danced with what seemed like real happiness under perfect brows. He was half-vampire, so he inherited the qualities of our breeding.

Mom had told me, once, that he was over 150 years old.

"Thank you," I finally managed, sliding my hands from his. I wanted to run back to my room, because I felt a singular, heavy pressure all around me. As if everyone wanted to watch this Big Momentous Meeting or something.

Where were Jacob and my dad? I needed them! Mom was smiling pleasantly, Auntie Rose exuded confident pleasure, as if she had cut and styled my hair herself, and Auntie Alice just beamed because my outfit pleased her. Who knows, maybe she could sniff out which set of the beautiful lingerie I was wearing. That _would_ please her, certainly.

"We've only just arrived," I said, to make polite small-talk. I knew how to do that. Part of my "human education" that I had internalized over the years. "How did you know to come, today?"

"We've been waiting for word of you," Nahuel told me, still standing, still eyeing me as if I were something he had acquired at auction or something. Not on eBay, but more like Sotheby's.

I darted a glance around the room, hoping to find someone who would come to me. No, I wasn't in any real danger, but I felt as if I had been left alone in the middle of a wide ocean without a life jacket.

_Uncle Jasper!_

I caught his eye as Nahuel was telling me about the temporary camp he and his aunt, Huilen, had established not far from our new home. _Help_, I tried to tell my uncle with my eyes. I wished I could throw my extreme unease across the room at him, but I couldn't.

Still, he was protective enough to cross with apparent casualness to me. "Nahuel," he offered smoothly. "It has been awhile."

Relief swirled around me. Was that because my uncle was helping or was it merely that I was enormously relieved he had come to me? "Do you remember my Uncle Jasper?" I asked our – my? – guest.

Nahuel's smile slipped a little. "Of course, he and his lovely mate found Huilen and me." He eyed again Uncle Jasper's myriad scars and I could see the tension that stiffened his shoulders. "You were partly responsible for the biggest change of my life, Jasper. I thank you and your mate."

Jasper stayed close to my side as I asked, "Biggest change?"

His smile was back in full, charming force. "Yes. For I learned, in your family, what I could be and what the future could hold for me, and my whole perspective changed."

Though Jasper's hand now rested lightly on my shoulder, I felt so entirely uncomfortable that I shouted for my father in my mind.

_Dad! Daddy! Where are you and Jacob? Help me! I need you!_

_~*~*~_

_Excerpt from Chapter 5:_

_Ah, hell_, I decided silently. _Edward, if you're listening, go away_. I held Nessie against myself for a few minutes. We didn't talk. We just sat as we always had. But now, I was alert to the fragrance of her skin, the distinct taste-aroma of silk, of all things, and was reminded of the drawer of all that lace she had let slip. I felt the reawakening of ... of hungers, really, that I hadn't even remembered in years. It was disconcerting. It was kind of amazing. And through it all, I had to keep breathing, steadily, in and out. I wasn't stupid. Last thing in the world she needed was for her best friend to go all, well, _carnal_ on her.


	5. Jacob: This time, I got it right

**A/N 1: Ah, how creepy is Nahuel, anyway, you wonder? My take on him is that he wants what he wants. What he has come to expect is his. How far will he go to get it...? That's the question. (Hint, read the Preface in chapter 1.) **

**I do appreciate hearing your thoughts on the matter, or on any other matter, really, so please feel free to speculate! **

**And now, back to the rainforest... **

**Thanks for reading! ~ LJ**

**~**~**~**

_**5. Jacob**_

This time, I got it right. I got it _perfect_.

It actually hadn't gone so bad, all things being equal. I mean, I still had my arms and legs and other necessary parts, so I figured I was good. And I had to bark a laugh because it wasn't often I caught Edward Cullen, Mind-reader of America, flat-footed.

He was still processing.

"So, you think that her expressed interest on the plane triggered the extension of the imprinting?" he mused while we ran. We had found Zafrina and her coven, and had scouted the major hunting territories of the biggest local predators, as well as heard a rumor of a couple of nomad vampires in the vicinity. Those didn't interest Edward nearly as much as my "What the hell?" moment.

_Only thing I can think of._ I lumbered along beside him, casual-like, as we headed in a loop back to the new place. I needed to get back there. Something was feeling weird. Like I needed to see Nessie again before everything worked right. _So I thought I'd better tell you, first, because you can see everything in my head and can explain it to Bella. _

"Good idea," he said, shooting me an exasperated look. "I'm more worried about Nessie."

_Why? _

"She's not fully adult, yet!"

_Oh, and Bells didn't fall for you when she was seventeen?_

"Renesmee is only sixteen. Ish."

I snorted. _Give her a few months. Is that what you want?_

"What do _you_ want, Jacob?"

_I want – Hell, Edward. What does every red-blooded shapeshifter want? I didn't want her like this last month, but I do now. I can't help it. You know I love her. You know I always will. You know I'd do all that crawl through broken glass stuff and everything. Do you have any idea why we Imprint?_

He growled, but it was merely in an annoyed way, not out of rage. "Yes. To improve the bloodlines."

_Yep,_ I thought at him, trying not to be smug._ I can't help it. It's programmed. _

"_You_ want to improve the bloodlines through _my daughter_!"

I couldn't exactly laugh, even if it sounded funny. _Not today, I promise. I'll wait. We'll do it... Do it right. I can _court_ her and everything. I just need –_

"Permission."

_Yeah._

He was silent. I was hoping to get that permission without reminding how hugely he owed me.

"Too late."

_Yeah, well. I didn't mean for that to slip out._

"Right."

_But since it did..._ I let the thought hang in the air.

"I need to talk to Bella. And to Nessie."

_Fair enough. But so do I. _

"Fair enough. I can't believe I'm having this discussion with a wolf."

I snorted. _Sure you can. You just thought you had another year, is all._

He smirked as the trees thinned a little and a shaft of sunlight hit his skin with a rainbow explosion. Then, his whole face stilled in sheer, vampiric tension.

"Nessie!"

His tone was fierce and my muscles rippled. If I hadn't been running as a wolf, I would have phased immediately in reaction to Edward's hiss.

_What?? _We piled on the speed, and I could practically smell the vampires in a large group not far off.

"She needs me. Us. She called for us."

_What did she say?_ I demanded.

"She said she needs help!"

_I'm faster. Want a ride?_

"Go! I'll catch up. That is, _if_ you outrun me."

The past few hours disappeared with the trees behind me as I tore to Nessie. What the hell was wrong? Where was everyone? Did she get stuck somewhere? What happened?

Wait, there was that other pair of vampires that was going to be visiting. Who were they? That other one who was like her?

_I'm coming, Nessie,_ I chanted over and over in my head as I approached the complex with its long windows and airy spaces. The family knew me so I didn't worry so much about showing up all furred and everything. I just leapt the low boundary wall and landed in a dust cloud near the front door. I growled, loudly, so she could hear me even if she couldn't see me. Where was she? I smelled her, but the glass made it impossible to see inside, with the reflections of the outside acting as a curtain.

"Jacob! Jacob!"

She bolted from the door, arms outstretched and I crouched so she could hop on my back. Then, we turned, she and I. Turned to run. We had a system.

Edward arrived just then – werewolves really were faster than vampires – his face lined in anxious rigidity. I skidded to a halt just on this side of the tree line. He spun almost midair and met us. I could tell, by the heavy tension that seemed to flow around me, that Nessie was telling her dad about whatever it was that had frightened her so much she had to call for us both. Edward's whole body relaxed and he eyed me with a wry, rueful expression.

I chuffed at him. _What? Do I need to get her away or what? Is everyone all right?_

He took Nessie's hand, but didn't pull her from me. Wise choice, actually. "One of our guests distressed her. She's fine. She just... She could have used us with her, I think, when she met him." He kissed his daughter's hand. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. We never thought there'd be any...problem, or I'm sure neither Jacob nor I would have left you to meet him without us."

_Him?_

"It's okay, Dad. I'm okay now. Do I – do I have to go back? Right now?" Stress sharpened her tone.

Edward released her hand. "No, you're fine. I think I remember hearing that you were supposed to be unpacking Jacob's stuff for him, right?"

_As if I can sleep right now! I'm revved like a diesel engine_, I protested.

"Then take her for a quick run, Jacob. Go on. I'll make everything all right inside."

Nessie's tension bled from her body almost tangibly. I could feel it as she relaxed more thoroughly into me. "Thank you, Daddy. I'm sorry. I just freaked out."

Edward's smile was something so sublimely paternal that I was kinda blown away. "I don't blame you in the least. It was hardly what was expected. I would have 'freaked out' myself, believe me."

"Oh, right," she retorted, her hands combing through my fur. "I bet. I'm glad Uncle Jazz was there. Apologize to him for me?"

"You can do that when you get home. Take your time, though," he said, smiling at me with that same unusual smile.

_Thanks, Edward._

"Go on," he said, patting Nessie's knee. "Let me know when you get back, all right?"

I took off, Nessie on my back. "I want to run, Jacob," she murmured with only enough volume to reach my ears, as was proper in the unknown rainforest in which she found herself. "Please! Get me _away_ from here!"

I nodded my head and took off, back along the loop Edward and I had just run. It was really weird, running with her now. For years, we had done this. From the time she was able to hunt on her own, we had been able to run together, her small hands gripping my fur as she gripped me with her legs. But now... It was almost as if I had never had her there, before. Because of the new depth of my Imprint upon her. I felt her inner thighs tense against me to keep her balance. Felt the caressing nature of her hands against my skin. Imagined how all this would feel if I were in my more natural form...

I shook my head to clear it. Distractions. I didn't need those. I wanted her to get to feeling safe. I was doing better until I felt her sort of slide down to ride on her stomach, beneath my shoulder blades. _Whoa_.

I slowed immediately. Chuffed at her. She stroked my shoulder. "Whenever you want to stop is good, Jacob. I'm okay, now. Sorry if I scared you. I just didn't know what to do."

Opening my mouth wide, I drew in a huge double-lungful of air. A fallen tree was half-rotting to one side and I stopped next to it, so she could get down easily. She slid off slowly, reluctantly, and sat on the log, watching me.

I watched her, too. Trying to figure out what was going on. And how the hell I was going to phase human when I couldn't leave her by herself? And I couldn't even tell her to close her eyes or anything simple like that. Her "sharing" went only one way.

"What?" she asked eventually as the silence got uncomfortably long. We did okay with quiet, she and I, but this was different because I did indeed have something to say, but no human vocal equipment.

I turned around and looked at her again. She blinked. Then, she blushed visibly. "Ohhh," she whispered before ducking her head between her knees. "I'll be good. I know the rules," she murmured.

I waited, decided she'd be fine if I used the next tree over for a "changing room" and phased back, sliding my khaki slacks on with the same ease I did my sweats under normal circumstances. It was just that the slacks were wrinkled after all this time wrapped and bound against my hind leg. Oh well.

"All right, Nessie. Spill it. What happened back there?"

She lifted her head, her cheeks still beautifully rosy. "I really am sorry, Jacob. I didn't mean to sound so bad. I guess Dad got really scared?"

"He wasn't the only one," I informed her, sitting next to her and studying her to make sure she was all right.

She lifted a hand. "Can I – Can I show you?" At my nod, she scooted closer to me and spread her hand out on my cheek, keeping my focus entirely in her deep brown gaze.

I saw the interior of the house and her room. The sculptures I had carved for her, one of the enormous closets designed by Alice and a drawer with a lot of lace, and then – Then she pulled her hand away.

"Sorry!" she breathed. "Um. Let me try again."

"Nessie? You all right, honey?"

"Yeah. I am. Just, um." Her skin reddened even more. I got it, finally, but managed not to smile. I took her hand in mine and put it back on my face.

After a flurry of something, I saw the interior of the new house, the wide open first floor, and the vampires that were expected. And I saw the half-vampire. Nahuel. The one who showed me that Nessie wouldn't necessarily get old and die in a decade.

I felt Nessie's agitation and unease while she showed me their conversation and I started bristling. "Hang on," I ground out, taking her hand away. "Give me a sec, okay?" I flexed my hands. Calmed myself. My skin was prickly hot so I breathed heavily, in and out.

"Jacob?" She didn't reach for my face, but her hand on my arm had a calming effect. The muscles were still rippling. She brushed her fingers there, as if trying to relax me. "You all right?"

I inhaled deeply of the scent that was so uniquely my girl. "Better, thanks. Okay. So he freaked you out? He was really making a lot of assumptions, wasn't he?"

"Yes!" she breathed. "That was it _exactly_. And I didn't know what to do or how to tell him to quit it and I didn't want to offend a guest or anything but...!"

My smile was a little forced, I admit. "Well, I can't blame the guy, even if I want to rip his head off for upsetting you."

"What?"

I sighed. Couldn't help myself. Again. "He's probably been waiting for you for years, you know. You're the only one like him we know of that isn't his half-sister."

Her pink lips formed a silent _**O**_. "And everyone knows this," she rasped after a few moments.

"Well, I know it," I told her.

I heard her heart thud heavily and recognized her alarmed stillness. Without thinking, as I had always done, I scooped her up and held her on my lap, only belatedly remembering how I was supposed to be being all gentle with her.

_Ah, hell_, I decided silently. _Edward, if you're listening, go away_. I held Nessie against myself for a few minutes. We didn't talk. We just sat as we always had. But now, I was alert to the fragrance of her skin, the distinct taste-aroma of silk, of all things, and was reminded of the drawer of all that lace she had let slip. I felt the reawakening of ... of hungers, really, that I hadn't even remembered in years. It was disconcerting. It was kind of amazing. And through it all, I had to keep breathing, steadily, in and out. I wasn't stupid. Last thing in the world she needed was for her best friend to go all, well, _carnal_ on her.

I blew out a breath. "Feeling better?" I murmured into her hair after a while. Part of me was exhausted – I'd been up forever – but part of me was relaxing right into her, as if curling up with her in my arms was the most reasonable thing I could do right then.

Which was stupid, since we were still in the rainforest and there wasn't a pillow in sight.

"Can't we just stay here? Until they go?"

"Tempting, but no. I really do need to crash, honey. I don't suppose you managed to find my pillow?"

Leaning away from me, she shook her head. "Sorry. But, we can go back right now and I'll take care of everything for you while you eat. The kitchen should be functional by now, I hope. Or we could hunt!"

"Then let's head back, Ness. I should get you home."

She nodded, but instead of sliding off my lap, she put her hands on my face and showed me what she saw when I arrived to rescue her earlier. The dust kicked up by my paws that swirled around me like some sort of polluted cloud. Of a possessive, near-gloating feeling and relief she felt to see me, and the surprise on everyone's faces. I guessed she wasn't embarrassed to show me how she felt anymore, and I guessed I wasn't either.

"I'm glad you were first," she whispered, her eyes glowing.

It was almost as natural as breathing. I tightened my hold on her and lowered my head to hers. "So am I." I was going to kiss her. I knew it with sudden, amazing clarity. I meant it to be a perfect _first kiss_ kind of kiss. The kind of kiss that a sixteen-year-old girl _should_ have. The light kind, sweet, tentative and brief.

It was all of those things. Plus the unexpected pounding of my heart against her, plus the strong, quick pace of her own as I started to lift my head.

It was all of those things, until her hands slid behind my neck, her lips clung to mine and she held on to me with a strength and surety I was pretty sure the average sixteen-year-old girl didn't come close to possessing. I kissed her again, not nearly so tentatively, and only stopped when I had to come up for air.

"Ness..." I whispered against her skin.

"Sorry..." she gasped. "Didn't know...it would... um... be like that. Wow."

I smiled into her eyes. "Never apologize, Renesmee Cullen. That was wonderful."

Her usual mischief sparkled in her entire expression. "Well, I'm still glad you were first," she teased.

"So. Am. I." I repeated, lifting her off my lap and setting her on the log. "So. Ready to go find my stuff so I can crash?"

"Walking or running?" She hopped off the log and tossed a smile over her shoulder before taking off into the rainforest.

I knew her senses were almost as clear as my own, but I didn't want her running this trail without me yet, so I caught up to her in a couple of heartbeats and swung her up in my arms, running as I had once run with her mother, in another life, up a mountain in the snow. "Remember, hon, to tell your dad when we get within thought-range, okay? Don't want him ripping my head off for carrying you in like this."

She looked up at me from the cradle of my arms. "I'll do my best."

When we got back to the complex, the sun had started its descent to the west. I set Nessie down. _We're back, Edward. No need to alert the posse. I'm not improving the bloodlines just yet._

Had to harass the man; he could be insufferable sometimes, he really could. I heard a knock on one of the plate glass windows at the same time Nessie did. "I guess we could eat first," I suggested.

She gripped my hand, lacing her smaller fingers somehow through my large ones. "Sure. Yeah. Just promise me you'll stay right with me, okay?"

"Got it, Nessie. No problem."

Edward rolled his eyes a little when he saw me as Nessie and I entered. Just the usual crowd, I was relieved to see. Nessie was surrounded by all of those who loved and cared for her, but she didn't let go of my hand. Her father had done his job well, I guessed, since no one bothered her about her sudden departure. They were mostly wanting to make sure she was all right now, and Bella tugged her toward the kitchen. "Come on, darling. You have to inaugurate the fridge!"

"But Mom," Nessie protested, "I've gotta find Jacob's stuff! I promised!"

"Eat," I suggested, smiling with Bella. "I'll live for another hour, I guess."

Bella laughed, the bell-chime tone of it ringing beautifully. "Yes, the master of restraint, aren't you Jake?" I caught Edward's eye as he entered the tiled kitchen. _Did you get a chance to talk to her?_

He seemed to move his head aimlessly, but it was a definite negative as far as I could tell. _Ah. All right. _

I had a quick-fried pair of pork chops and a baked potato that someone had evidently taken the time to work on while Nessie and I were out. "Thanks," I said. "My compliments to the chef."

"Food Network," Bella and Edward chimed simultaneously. We all chuckled. Where else did a vampire learn to cook, right?

At length, Nessie and I cleared our dishes and washed and dried them. "Now can I go unpack for him, Mom?"

"Sure, darling. Just remember to let him sleep when he's tired, all right? He's had a rough day."

"I am here to let her know that for myself, Mrs. Cullen," I informed her with a sarcastic smile.

She reached up on her tiptoes to ruffle my hair. "Right up until you pass out and snore, Jake. I know."

I made sure to check that Nahuel and his assumptions were nowhere near when Nessie and I headed to the small building that was to be my home for the next few years. I slowed on our approach. Wow. Might it be _our_ home, Nessie's and mine? Maybe? In a few years? The images flooded my imagination and I had to block them before Edward found them. Big check on a guy's reckless imagination, having a mind-reader for a friend and potential father-in-law.

Nessie opened the hollow steel door and began immediately to rummage through boxes for me. "Now go sit down," she told me imperiously, pointing to the small square table. "Let me find your bedding so you can crash. Then maybe I can fix some of the rest of this up while you're sleeping, okay?"

Exhaustion tugged heavily at me all of a sudden, slurring my speech. "Whatever you say, hon. I trus' you."

Her musical humming provided a soothing backdrop as I tried to watch her. Her delight in scrounging was obvious; it warmed me up all out of proportion to know that she was that happy to be doing all that work for me.

I must have dozed. Before I knew what was happening, I felt two warm hands tugging at my arm. "C'mon, Jacob. Time for bed," she whispered near my ear. "Let's go."

"Yeah. Sounds good. 'Kay." My eyes barely opened as she half-dragged me to find that all-important pillow. Last thing I remembered was her scent, familiar and beloved despite that icy edge of vampire to the warm, fragrant depth of her human identity. I held her hand, I think, and closed my eyes.

It had been a really, really long day. And it wasn't even over yet.

**~**~**~**

**Excerpt from Chapter 6:**

"Nessie? Honey? What's wrong?"

"Just get your pants on, Jacob," I suggested. "Please? I promised not to look at you and I'm trying not to." My cheeks were absolutely burning! "Please?"

I heard him chuckle and then the door closed. "Okay," he rumbled after a minute. "You can come out now."

"Why don't you see who's at the door?"

"You told me already. Why don't you come talk to him? I'll be right behind you."

"Can't," I said again. "I need, um, to see my Grandpa, Jacob, okay? Can you tell Nahuel I'll see him tomorrow?"


	6. Nessie: Next time, from across the room!

**A/N: Herein, Nessie makes a small error of judgment that will alter her life. Yep. It happens. Do we blame Nahuel or her own impulsive effort? **

**We return to Jacob's place, where Jacob himself is snoring heavily in his room and Nessie is still reeling from the effects of her first kiss. Er, kisses. Thank you so much for reading! ~LJ**

_**6. Nessie**_

Next time, from across the room!

Darkness had hit by the time I finished setting up stuff in my Jacob's new home. I barely noticed. I was _flying_. Absolutely over the moon. He kissed me! I remembered all of it, replaying it with a song under my breath while I grinned like an idiot amidst Jacob's boxes and crates. He kissed me _twice_!

I unpacked his books and lined them up on the built-in shelving between two narrow windows. Found his clothes. They were new, too. Aunt Alice had this thing about wearing clothes more than once. Thing is, I was guessing she'd have to get used to – gasp! – _washing clothes_ and wearing them _again_ since we were eons away from a mall. And I guessed that Federal Express didn't deliver out here to Rio São Tomás so she probably couldn't order clothes online, either. I shook out Jacob's clothes with a smile on my face. Huge shirts. Not that he wore them all that often; he had three times as many trousers as he had shirts. Fully half of the "bottoms" were sweats; because they traveled well. Most of the shirts were some species of cotton t-shirt. They ripped easily, I knew. I hadn't seen him phase wolf all that often, but I do have a couple of recollections from my earliest memories where he completely exploded out of his skin.

Clothing had to be expendable!

I folded the foldables and found hangers to hang up the hangables. I would take them in one bunch just before I finished getting everything ready. My Jacob needed his sleep; his snores were audible even through a closed door!

I also unpacked a few other things. Some of them made me blush. Stuff I had made for him or given him over the years. Why did he keep it all? Silly paintings. A picture I drew of a wolf when I was maybe two. I am so not talented like that. Not at all. I like to sing and dance, but put a crayon or something in my hand and I'm hopeless.

By the time I was ready to hang up Jacob's clothes in his closet, it was dark, like I said. My night vision was pretty good. Not as good as Jacob's or my parents', but still pretty clear. So I didn't have to flip a switch or light a lamp or anything. All I had to do was slip through the door, hangers hooked over my fingers and slacks tucked under my arms.

The trick was to get in and out without waking him. How I slid away after he slept was a mystery, but I put it down to his complete exhaustion. Now, though, he had slept for a few hours. I was fighting against his more rested state and my own stomach. If it rumbled, he'd wake up. I was pretty sure. So, I clamped my lips shut and crept in.

Like usual, Jacob was sleeping like a dead man. A dead man who snored, anyway. I kept my eye on him while I dropped the foldables on top of a dresser before trying to quietly open the closet door. One hand of hangers up on the wire shelf-rack, the other hand... So far, so good.

Then, a knock sounded on the exterior door and I gasped before abandoning the clothes to tell whichever nosey relative that we were fine. _Dad! Stop it! He's sleeping!_ I called in my head, just in case it was him. I only had one foot into the main living area of his place, when the grinding growl from the bedroom had me squeaking in alarm.

"Nessie!" Jacob called, his voice rough and sounding almost wolf-like in its timber.

Abandoning the door, I ran back to Jacob. "I'm here! It's good. Shh! Someone knocked is all. Shh! It's okay, Jacob!" I pressed myself against him and stretched, placing my hands on his face to bring his brain back to where it was supposed to be. At the same time, I was yelling, "Go away!" to whoever it was at the door. Jacob's muscles were rippling next to me, but I didn't know what else to do! "It's okay. It's me. It's okay."

"Renesmee?" The call came from outside and I recognized Nahuel's voice. "Are you all right?"

Which was what set Jacob _over the top_. Right in front of me, he shivered and shimmied, almost, and I was terrified into complete paralysis. Until he exploded, russet fur erupting all over his body. Of course, I didn't see _this_ from in front of him. He kind of managed to knock me clear across his room into the still-open closet when he phased.

Good thing I'm durable, huh?

"Jacob?" I called from where I landed, wincing a little because even though I am durable, I'm also half-human. And then I realized that my arm was broken. I said something I heard my dad say, once, but my mother would have been appalled.

Which was, of course, when Jacob's big furry face showed up in in the closet. "Sorry," I whispered to him over the waves of pain emanating from that broken place in my arm. "I didn't mean to make so much noise."

He chuffed at me and kept jerking his head up. "Um. I can't, Jacob." Didn't want him to get all mad at me for being too close when he phased. "You kinda knocked the wind out of me. And someone is still knocking at your door. It's not my dad, because I yelled at _him_, so it has to be someone else."

He rose to his hind legs and held out one of his paws to me. I bit my lip and shook my head. I'd scream and he didn't need to hear that. "Can you get my dad? And find out who's still pounding at your door calling for me? I think it's Nahuel but I'm not –"

Jacob was gone in a heartbeat and I tried to breathe and make myself brave enough to look at my broken arm. How bad was it? It hurt. I wanted to just bawl, but I was really afraid of how that might make Jacob react so I didn't.

I almost called Dad again but thought better of it. Dad would _not_ be thrilled to deal with Jacob's having injured me, even if it was my own fault.

"Nessie! Where're my pants!" Jacob called. Then I heard, "Hang on. At the door. Just a sec."

Relieved that he was human, I gripped my left arm in my right and held it tightly against my body. Pain screeched up and down my whole left side, but I bit my lip hard and kept it quiet. "Pants are on your dresser, Jacob," I managed to tell him, pushing myself up the wall to stand upright. He was going to be so mad at me.

I heard him growl. "Shut the closet door then, Nessie."

"Can't." I couldn't stretch that far. "I'll close my eyes," I rasped, my imagination tossing all sorts of stuff into my head and I crunched my eyes closed as I heard his breathing approach.

"Nessie? Honey? What's wrong?"

"Just get your pants on, Jacob," I suggested. "Please? I promised not to look at you and I'm trying not to." My cheeks were absolutely burning! "Please?"

I heard him chuckle and then the door closed. "Okay," he rumbled after a minute. "You can come out now."

"Why don't you see who's at the door?"

"You told me already. Why don't you come talk to him? I'll be right behind you."

"Can't," I said again. "I need, um, to see my Grandpa, Jacob, okay? Can you tell Nahuel I'll see him tomorrow?" Best I could do.

"Nessie?" The closet door blew open as he practically tore it off its hinges. I cringed under the heavy-browed irritation that glared at me. Then he knelt right in front of me, his expression smoothing into a tender concern. "Hey, did I scare you, honey? Didn't mean to. I'm not sure what triggered that one, but I'm sorry if it frightened you."

I snorted, trying to sound completely unbroken anywhere. "No. Not even. It's cool. You could never scare me."

"So why're you still here cowering in my closet, huh? Is Nahuel more frightening than I am?" He laughed at the very idea, a husky sound that curled my toes with sheer pleasure.

"I, um, was stupid?"

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, Nessie." Then, he just picked me up.

Then, I just shrieked.

Jacob froze in a half-crouch, and I could feel his muscles rippling all around me. I didn't think I was up for another broken bone. I bit my lip and tried something different: touching his face with my face and trying to share without my hand.

_It's okay! It's okay!_ I tried to tell him with an image of me saying that just a few minutes before. Showed him what happened. Showed him my head was okay, but I needed my grandpa for my arm. And then, when he still seemed frozen like that, I replayed our kiss from earlier in the day. The _second_ one.

And _that_ made him stand up straight and quit looking like he was broken himself! I was very proud of my ingenuity. "Renesmee?" he breathed, eyes opened into enormous dark platters. He checked and my hands were still occupied in either being in pain or supporting the broken space. "How'd you...?" Then he shook his head. Regret and pain carved themselves next to his lips, over his eyes. "All right. I'll take you. I cannot believe I did that. I am so sorry, honey."

"Enough. I know. Please?" I said through my teeth, losing my grip on the pain. "Maybe I'll be a fast healer, y'know? But what if I'm too fast?"

He groaned. "Oh, don't even think that. I know about that. Come on."

As if I were made of soap bubbles, he carried me from his closet to the front door. Sniffed loudly. "He's still here," Jacob muttered darkly.

"Nahuel?"

"Renesmee! Ah, good. I have brought you a gift!"

I moaned. "Not now, Nahuel. I have to get to the house. Can I see you tomorrow?"

Jacob opened the door, filling it almost beyond its borders with his body. He glared down at the smaller half-human. "Did he start all of this?" he demanded.

I winced. "Um. I don't _think_ so. I thought it might have been me."

Jacob directed a withering glare at Nahuel. "Nope. It was his voice that prompted that one. You. If there are _any_ complications, you are a dead man." He stalked off, still carrying me with exquisite care, though he was seething.

"It couldn't really be his fault," I tried to say.

His usual husky tones were flat and hard. "I know. It's mine. I must have been having a nightmare or something. Nessie, honey, I'm –"

"Shhh. Enough, Jacob!"

We were at the main house in just a few moments. I could see around Jacob's tightly-muscled arm that Nahuel was still gazing after us in disbelief.

Indoors, things went kind of fast. Mom and Dad emerged from upstairs. I had a feeling I knew why I hadn't heard from them, before. Actually, I had the feeling that the entire family was taking advantage of my certain absence for a few hours. I had to pretend, though, that I was completely oblivious.

I think, though, that Dad saw some of my suspicions in my head. He threw me an incredulous, half-amused glance even as he reached me. I blushed.

Then, his expression hardened as he exchanged looks with my Jacob. "Carlisle. I hope your office is up and running."

Grandpa reached us, but couldn't really examine me while Jacob still held me. My whole family knew not to mess with Jacob when Jacob felt he was protecting me; apparently he had been this way since I was born. I still didn't know why, but I was really glad it was like this.

"Psst!" I whispered up at his stony face.

He took me down the stairs to Grandpa's medical office, where all of his stuff was still in boxes – I knew they'd been busy while I was gone! – and ducked under the low-framed doorjamb. I stretched, wincing a little, and he finally got it. Still looking a little surprised, he pushed his face to mine.

I shared happy memories of some of the stuff we'd done over the years, with a general contentment and joy in his companionship, so he would calm down. Also shared with him how happy I was that he was first...!

He grazed my cheek with his lips, but didn't answer. That was okay. I knew he was happy to be with me, too.

Setting my arm was...painful. Jacob stayed with me throughout, wincing with every gasp and stifled shriek. Needles didn't like my skin, so giving me a quick shot of anesthetic was not an option. I'd never been injured before; my life was so entirely sheltered. Grandpa tried to get me to take an oral anesthetic, so I did, but my body metabolized it before he was finished setting the bone.

"I guess we need to make charts for you, Nessie my girl," he said ruefully.

Jacob growled. "What about morphine?" he asked.

"Orally? I was able to inject you, if you recall, Jacob. Nessie's skin, though, isn't so cooperative." He sighed and ruffled my hair. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I know this is going to be really painful."

It was. Excruciatingly so. But I tried to be brave, because it hurt Jacob so much to see me like this. He was blaming himself, but I wished he wouldn't. "It's my fault," I told him for the tenth time as Grandpa was finally able to put a cast on my arm. Fiberglass, it was a bright orange and really pretty. "I'll try to calm you down from across the room next time, okay?"

He rolled his eyes, but his voice was still ragged when he assured me there wouldn't _be_ a next time.

"All right. Not sure how much help these will be," my grandpa told me, "but here's some pain reliever. Try the acetaminophen for starters, and we'll keep an eye on what works for you. Would you be willing to keep a journal for me on this for a few days, Nessie? So I know?" His smile was apologetic. "You're a new patient and I haven't more than a clue on what will work for you."

"Sure, Grandpa," I mumbled, taking what he offered me right then. "Stinks having this kind of skin, when the bones still break, you know?"

"I can imagine." Then, he looked to Jacob. "How are you? Aside from hungry?"

"Fine," Jacob snapped. Then, he shook his head. "Sorry, Carlisle. Hungry, yeah. You, Nessie?"

"Starving!"

Mom hovered, Dad glowered, but somehow I managed to shut up the growling in my stomach, eating one-handed, while assuring them that yes, it hurt – can't lie when your dad's a mind-reader – but I would do my best and keep track of different pain meds per the doctor's orders.

"What else can I do?"

"You can try to keep out of Jake's way when he's phasing," Mom suggested, acid fairly dripping from her lips. She gave some of that to Jacob, too. "I'm still trying to figure out what happened," she went on, sounding suspicious.

I would _not_ let them be angry with my Jacob. "Stop it already!" I looked at Dad. He knew how it was. I beckoned to my mom with my good hand. She bent over the table, of course, and I checked just where I wanted to start this playback. I showed her my putting Jacob to bed, let her listen to him snore. Showed her how I put stuff away, folding clothes, shelving books, and so on. She eyed me with unusual sharpness, but I pushed forward until it was time to put the clothes away. She heard the hangers and the door and saw Jacob practically bounce from the bed, disturbed and distracted and then Nahuel called and that freaked him out and I tried to calm him.

She didn't need to see me get clobbered so I stopped there. "That was reckless, Nessie," she stated, her melodic voice edged with brass. "You should have known better."

"But Mom," I went on, refusing to acknowledge Jacob's patent agreement with her, "I didn't want him to phase when Nahuel was there. I needed him human for me." I wanted to get Nahuel to quit making assumptions, not quit _breathing_!

Dad ruffled my hair. "Still, Nessie. We've spoken of this. I've already seen Jake's version, of course, and I'm not mad at him, all right?"

"He didn't do anything wrong," I mumbled. Mom tapped my plate and I took another bite of ravioli.

Jacob shook his head. "Enough," he said, his voice husky. "I can't stand this, Bells. It's killing me." I could hear the pain in his voice and see it in the pulled, wan paleness underneath his naturally beautiful color. "It won't happen again." Turning in his chair, he addressed me as if I were the only other person in the house. "Nessie, I'm going to –"

I heard my heart thump in trepidation. Was he going to leave me? I couldn't bear to hear it, so I thrust my hand to his face, interrupting him without waiting for permission. Closed my eyes and imagined him leaving with the question-feeling attached to it. Kind of like a nonverbal _Why/What/Like this? _accent to whatever I was showing. I don't know how else to describe it, because I've always done it, they tell me. Ever since I was born.

He shook his head, holding my hand to his jaw. I opened my eyes, desperate for reassurance. Saw it in the glowing depths of his eyes. "But, we'll have to figure something out. I can't go doing this every time we move, you know?"

"No kidding." I reclaimed my hand and blew out a relieved breath. Good. He wasn't going to leave me. Good. My heart relaxed into a more normal pacing.

"So eat," he told me, nodding at my half-full plate. "You've probably still got a guest around here somewhere."

I jerked my head around. "I forgot! Mom! Please, can't we just... Tell him to go away?" _Dad? I still don't want to see him! _

My father put his arm around Mom's waist. She leaned into him and they both just studied me for a moment. Finally, Dad nodded. "Tonight, you're off the hook, sweetheart, but tomorrow..."

I bit my lip. "Tomorrow. All right, all right! What, does he want to have breakfast with me or something? Give him something to do besides stare at me like I'm on auction? It creeped me out, Mom!"

Jacob growled with sudden violence, his tension reaching me in vibrating waves.

"Jacob!" "Jake!" We all three of us called his name soothingly, and I brushed his hard forearm with my fingertips. He felt just right, to me. Not cold or hard, just warm and perfect.

"No one should make you feel that way, darling," Mom said, sounding hesitant. "Maybe, maybe we could ask him to join us after breakfast, when we're all in and out and constantly monitoring?"

"Jacob?" I asked, because I really wanted to have him with me. "Please?"

"All right. I'll stick around." His smile was less forced, now. "And I promise not to break anything."

Mom and Dad left, then, so we could eat in peace. My arm was throbbing unmercifully and I winced, eventually offering the rest of my ravioli to Jacob, who could usually be counted on to eat leftovers.

~**~**~

**A/N: Jacob's feeling guilty... He doesn't actually stop feeling guilty for a while (has Edward rubbed off on him?) but that's not the end of the Nessie-worries...**

**Excerpt from Chapter 7:**

He snorted. "I know _exactly_ how you feel. Just remember – I really would like her to reach her full maturity with choices still in front of her, all right?"

"What?" _You lost me._

He blew out a breath. "She's watching, now, so I'll make it short. Don't improve your bloodlines with her before her next birthday. Got it?"

I choked. "Got it. Hadn't really, ah, planned on it."


	7. Jacob: Don't improve the bloodlines

**A/N: Thinking about improving the bloodlines? Of course Jacob is! Can you imagine what it'd be like to have your girlfriend's father able to read your mind? **

**Thank you, again, for reading and letting me know what you think! :) ~LJ**

_**7. Jacob**_

Got it: Don't Improve the Bloodlines. Yet.

Nessie was getting a journal or something from one of the offices. I waited on the main floor, in front of one of the windows, staring out at the night. Most of the Cullens and relations were hunting. I might have considered that, too, but there was no way on earth I was leaving Nessie alone tonight.

What had I done to her? The guilt tore at me from my chest on out, ever since that first shriek in my closet, hours before. Words I hadn't had to use since this stupid gene was first triggered pushed against my lips, but I kept them from escaping; no one needed to hear them. If Edward did, he wasn't going to keel over and die.

How could I keep that from happening again? I put it down to the new place, the strange sounds and the voice of that other guy, Nahuel, calling for MY Nessie. At MY house. What the hell had he been thinking?

No excuse, of course, for hurting her. None whatsoever. I was only thankful that she got thrown away from me and was broken, not scarred. What Sam endured constantly with Emily was not going to be my fate. Not yet, anyway.

_A lucky break for both of us._ I groaned at my own pun.

I felt her good arm around my waist, her lips meeting the skin on my back. _Whoa_. "Don't be sad, Jacob," she murmured with a voice so quiet that it was likely no one else heard but me. Her arm tightened and I felt a fierce _need_ for her enflame my senses. "I won't be so stupid again."

"I hate that you have to be so careful, honey," I murmured back, not able to look at her yet, not wanting to move away from the trusting pressure of her arm around me, of the feel of her pressing against half the length of my body from behind. It was just so bizarre that all this had happened to me – to us – so suddenly. Still, it felt completely right. Imprinting allowed for that kind of certainty, I guessed. I covered her hand with my own, tracing the pale lines with care. "I don't know how to keep it from happening again."

I felt a laugh against my spine and forced my instinctive responses to tamp _down_, already. All I needed was for Edward to show up and peek in my head just now. No. Her voice was playful, no pain in it at all. "Didn't you use to sleep with me when I was smaller?"

I laughed, too. "Yeah, but that was in a different place under a different set of circumstances. Then, too, when you would tend to bite me to wake me up, I had a more, um, tangible reminder to be real careful, y'know?" Finally under better control, I turned around, keeping her hand in mine, and moved us to one of the pale sofas just behind us. I took the journal she had tucked between her injured arm and her body. "All right. So what are you on and how is it working?"

She sighed, handed me a pen, and told me the medicine and the dosage. "I took it about ten minutes ago, and I feel all right, right now. Not great, but I can manage it. I guess it's a good lesson, huh?"

Guilt lashed me again and I dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "For you and me both. I'm so sorry." I could still see her, from her memory and my own, flying away from me when I phased. "I'll be having nightmares about that for weeks."

Her fingers brushed my face. _Don't!_ She showed me images of me sleeping, a smile on my face. Where did she get that one? Then, she showed a leap of imagination, with her biting me near my shoulder to wake me up...

I blushed.

"Um, maybe not..." she said, feeling the elevation in my temperature and blushing herself. "Sorry..."

I had to laugh. Quietly. "Do _not_ let your dad see that one, okay? He won't let me near you for a month."

Her cheeks bloomed again before she ducked her head between my arm and the sofa cushion. "Sorry!"

"So," I said, deciding to get my brain away from all of that before I scandalized the household, "you want me with you tomorrow morning when Nahuel comes back?"

"Yes, please," she murmured. "I'd feel so much better."

"Then here is where I'll be," I promised. "Did you get all my boxes unpacked?" I teased.

"Not quite. I was getting hungry and was afraid my stomach would wake you up." She grinned at me. "Really, that's all I was worried about. And why have you kept those drawings I did when I was little? I was mortified. Can't we burn them?"

I thought of the scrawls of wolves and little, bronze-haired girls and stick trees and purple rivers and grinned back. "Never. I get a kick out of 'em."

She pouted; Nessie did like to pout when she didn't get her way. Lucky for her, most of us were willing to bend over backwards to keep her happy. She rarely had to ask for anything; most of her world was laid out before her like a feast and she just chose what she wanted and smiled at us as she enjoyed it. "Well," she harrumphed, "I think it's embarrassing. I mean, why couldn't I be a real artist, like you are? Your carvings are soooo beautiful," she sighed with longing in her voice.

Which reminded me. "Hey. You know what? I made you one for your birthday, but it got packed before I could give it to you. Want to go get it?"

She jumped to her feet, anticipation and pleasure brimming in her eyes. "Yes! Let's go!" Then, she winced and clutched at her arm. "Ouch. Okay. Maybe not."

I winced too, couldn't help it, and gathered her carefully against me, her right arm against my chest. "Sorry, hon," I rasped into her shining curls.

"I'm sorry, too. I feel so embarrassed and stupid." Her voice was clogged and I felt moisture against my skin.

Remorse burned. "What can I do?"

"Don't look at me?"

I nudged her face up in direct opposition of her wish. "Not that. Looking at you is one of my daily necessities, so think of something else." It was dark, yes, but that didn't bother either of us since we both had excellent night vision, as did every other resident of the place.

She frowned and wiped her tears off against my shoulder. I decided to try touching my forehead to hers, to see what it was she really wanted if she wasn't going to tell me. Just then, she tilted her head back to scowl at me...

And I was lost. Her lips were under mine and all I had to do was meet them, meld into them, and, when they parted... I don't think there are words for the next few moments, but words were not really needed.

I heard them before she did. Breaking away – hey, I still didn't have the official "permission" from her parents – I smiled into her eyes. "Folks are home."

She laughed breathlessly, which made me feel about twenty kinds of amazing. "Oh! Um, then I guess I should get up?"

"Yeah."

She rolled off my lap and took her journal back, managing to be graceful in spite of her injury. "I don't suppose I should add _that_ to my record?" she inquired with a lilt to her voice.

I laughed, too. "Only if it helped!" Just as the door opened. Rising to my feet, I nodded at Edward and Bella. "Good hunting?" I asked. "Anything new and tasty?" I had heard them planning on what new prey would be here, and how excited Emmett and Jasper, anyway, were about it all.

For the benefit of both Edward and Bella, I gestured to Nessie. "She's been keeping track of her meds. The last thing seemed to be doing pretty good." Nessie rolled her eyes at me.

Bella crossed in the blink of an eye to flip on a light and look at the journal. "I got a panther, actually. It was fun!" she remarked, smiling broadly at me. Her eyes were buttery gold in her ghost-pale face.

_Have you talked to her YET?_ I demanded of Edward, without exactly looking at him. No need to make Bella feel like she was missing out.

He didn't answer me. Instead, he slid his expression over for half a second. "Nessie? I need to steal Jake for a few."

_Great. Just great._ I dropped a kiss on Nessie's head, another one on Bella's – same as I'd been doing since we lived in Washington – and followed Edward outside, where a quarter moon offered scant light to the boundary wall, sheening silver on some of the trees beyond it. "Night, Nessie. Night Bella."

Nessie blinked. "Um, goodnight, Jacob. Don't forget your promise."

I nodded. "I'll be here when Nahuel is, yep."

"Good."

I followed Edward outside, keeping my pace to his all the way to the boundary wall. I carefully kept my mind occupied with remembering Nessie's earliest artwork, so he wouldn't go rummaging around in my head.

His first words answered my first question. "It was good hunting, yes. I had thought to take Nessie out tomorrow so she can get a feel for the area while I was not involved in the hunt itself, but I'm guessing that isn't going to work."

"Might be a problem," I acknowledged, wincing again. _Damn it!_ _I can't tell you how –_

He lifted a hand to shut me up and mock-punched me in the arm. "I know it. Believe me, I know." His lips thinned and I imagined he was remembering the _eventful_ courtship of Bella Swan.

"Yes. So I'm not interested in assigning blame or increasing your discomfort or hers, Jacob. What I am interested in is..." He broke off, a strange, strangled laugh half-erupting from his throat. "For your future information," he said, his tone now sounding more like a college professor than anything, "hers is the first mind I seek when I am away. I can't get into Bella's," he said, pausing awkwardly and smiling a little to himself. I didn't follow that one at all, but figured it was one of the hundred inside jokes from that particular relationship that I didn't _even_ want to be in on. "I am accustomed," he went on, "to seeking her out to make sure she's all right, just like any father would do for his little girl. And I do so as soon as _I am in range_ to do so."

I felt my skin heat again, dammit, but I couldn't stop the smile on my face. Didn't even want to. "Gotcha. I'm guessing you got a _mind-_full this evening?"

He shot me half a glare, the weak moonlight glinting off his cheekbones. "Yes, I did. However, she doesn't know that, and I would appreciate it if you didn't tell her." He smiled a little then and shook his head. "It's a very good thing that you have Imprinted upon her and that I trust that. And, too, that I have a full knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses." His expression still teetered on amusement, but there was no laughter in his voice. "I told Bella years ago that Renesmee could do worse than you, you know. And Bella has always appreciated the representation of your tribal promise ring that you've included in the carvings you have given to Nessie. She has also – as have I – appreciated that you've never told our daughter what that ring means to you." He paused, looking back at the house, and his words came more slowly when he continued. "I didn't foresee things would, ah, escalate so quickly between you two. I know it is as much her doing as yours, and I know that refusing her is difficult for all of us, not just you." Meeting my eyes again, he sighed. "So I'll just say what I said before: Be gentle with her. I'm not sure what to tell her about the Imprinting, myself. What is common with your brothers?"

"They always told the girl...eventually. When a level of, um, communication had been reached," I told him, thinking of Sam and Emily and Paul and Rachel. "Should I tell Nessie?" Part of me wanted to tell her, to be completely open and honest with her. Part of me was afraid to do so, not wanting her to feel like she had no choice in the matter.

"That's my difficulty as well," Edward said, answering my thoughts rather than my spoken question. "Let's not, for right now. She's..." He smiled a little reluctantly, it seemed to me. "Happy. That's too mild a word, but you get the idea."

"Me, too," I told him.

He snorted. "I know _exactly_ how you feel. Just remember – I really would like her to reach her full maturity with choices still in front of her, all right?"

"What?" _You lost me._

He blew out a breath. "She's watching, now, so I'll make it short. Don't improve your bloodlines with her before her next birthday. Got it?"

I choked. "Got it. Hadn't really, ah, planned on it."

He rolled his eyes. "I know, but you've _thought_ about it which is the first step. Let her get out of girlhood first, is all I'm saying. Bella would probably prefer eons of time, but I have a couple of convincing arguments prepared against that one." His smile was crooked, but more brotherly than anything. "Just don't be too obvious."

"I'll do my best," I assured him. _ And thanks._

"Now I'd like to spend some time with my girls, if that's all right with you, so we'll see you tomorrow."

"Night, Edward."

I waved at the house, at the plate glass windows, to tell _my_ girl goodnight. It had been one hell of a day, and I needed to unwind before I tried to crash again. I opted to run an extended circuit around the compound, but run human, so that no one would mistake me for a rare Giant Amazonian Canine or something. I might unnerve a local, running as fast as I could, but it wouldn't be as bad as it could be otherwise.

So I ran, enjoying the outpouring of speed, and thought about everything that had happened that day. The patrol with Edward, my first kiss with Nessie, the horrible accident, the time with Carlisle, and how we found out that she could "share" with me simply by touching her face to mine...

I had to run a long time, and the moon was on its way down before I was ready to call it a night and go home to my place. Her scent lingered, blending pleasantly with mine, a layering of both of them to be found at odd corners and in comforting places. I finished emptying boxes, found Nessie's birthday present and set it aside, and picked a book from a shelf to take to bed.

Surprisingly, I was dozing before I had read a paragraph. I shut off the light, replaying the best parts of the day in my head until the dreams took over.

The next morning, after two serious nightmares and at least one unbelievable dream, I woke up and ran a patrol before showering, getting Nessie's belated birthday gift and showing up for breakfast at the main house. "When is our guest due?" I inquired of Bella, who met me at the door.

She glanced at Alice, who growled, "I have no idea, since I can't get a read on _him_, either."

I ate breakfast on my own this morning, instead of with my Nessie. That was understandable, if unusual. Over the last year or so, she had made an effort to be more _human_ than _bloodsucker_. Which I, personally, appreciated. She still liked her meat more rare than most, but she was working on it. I had the feeling she was doing it for me... I loved that girl. Completely.

"Still eating cardboard, mongrel?" Rosalie called, sweeping through the kitchen as if it were her own personal domain. Which cracked me up.

"Bacon and eggs," I said, showing her my plate. The yolks were runny – I like them like that – but she looked a little sick before exiting the kitchen to the laundry area and leaving it again with a mesh bag.

The rest of the family was going to be busy during the morning, but they each had planned part of their morning to come through the main room of the house. At intervals. From Emmett who was going to be working in the garage, to Esme, who was already blueprinting improvements to this property, every member of the family would give Nessie what she asked for – overt supervision. I would be there, too, but it was right that her family should protect her as well. That's what family was for. And Nessie shouldn't have to deal with an obnoxious visitor who imposed himself on her.

Nessie's most recent scent-trail went up the stairs, so I sat on the bottom step and waited for her, the birthday present in my hand.

"Where's my Jacob?" she called from the top of the stairs.

I had to grin up at her as I set down her gift. It was actually pretty cool that she still was comfortable doing that. I held out my arms and she smiled ruefully at me. "Can't run today, I guess. Give me a sec?"

I winced inwardly to see her picking a careful way down the stairs. When she reached me in view of half the house, I lifted her carefully and spun her around in a slow circle. We had our system, even modified. "Good morning, Nessie."

She pointed at the cloth-wrapped bundle. "What's that?" she said immediately, like any other teenager.

"Your present, natch."

"Oh! Okay!" Nessie untied the bow that I had used to secure the t-shirt around the carving within. She didn't even notice the shirt, though. I watched eagerly as she went all speechless at her real gift. "Jacob," she finally murmured, "it's beautiful."

I shrugged, playing it off. "You always say that."

"Well it's always true," she breathed, turning the maple sculpture in her hands. "It's us! Hunting or running?"

I grinned. "Yep."

"Oh, look! You've got a grin on your face. Me, too!" I had done that on purpose, making my wolf-self grin as I had seen it in her memory, on occasion. She and Bella always seemed to get a kick out of that. "All right. That circle is here again. This time I'm carrying it like a trophy or something," she said, curiosity rippling all over her face. "Every year, you put this on something. You gotta tell me what it is."

I ran my finger down the length of her nose. "If you don't figure it out by your next birthday, I'll tell you," I promised. Edward caught my eye and laughed silently. _Think I can't keep it to myself for another year?_ I asked, not looking at him.

He moved his head slowly from side to side and I stifled a laugh of my own. _Ha! _

The family clustered around in a moment, admiring my work. They always did. Which was nice of them, really. It was just a hobby.

"You could sell this kind of thing, you know," Emmett remarked, handling the lacquered wood with extreme care. "At a website or on eBay or something."

"Speaking of eBay," Nessie murmured. "I have company."

"Be nice," Bella cautioned in a whisper. "Both of you."

**~*~*~**

**Excerpt from Chapter 8:**

_Daddy! What's wrong?_ I thought loudly, hearing the whine in my mental voice but unable to squelch it. _What's wrong? Am I dying?_ I didn't dare ask that aloud. Didn't want to scare anyone. I was terrified, though. Why was everyone just watching me? Where was Grandpa? Tears burned in my eyes and I couldn't wipe them away. They just sort of leaked out, rolling down my face in hot streaks as Jacob's warmth surrounded me.


	8. Nessie: I am not into pain At all

**A/N: Nahuel's back! There is a web-cam moment! Jacob and Nessie are in bed together! (Ah, did that get your attention? Read on...) **

**Thank you again for reading! I enjoy hearing how my story strikes people. :) ~LJ**

_**8. Nessie**_

I am not into pain. At all. And I don't care who knows it.

"Renesmee!" Nahuel's silky voice reached me as soon as he entered the clearing in front of our house. He came to me with his hands outstretched in greeting before getting a glimpse of the neon-orange cast on my left arm. "What happened? Was this from yesterday?" His eyes darted immediately, narrowed with anger, to Jacob, who filled the doorway. Today, Jacob actually had a shirt on. A tight black t-shirt to go with a pair of jeans. Where did he find jeans with legs that long, is what I wanted to know. Probably Alice found them.

Wearing a pair of black shorts and a white sleeveless top – What else goes with orange, anyway? – I hastened to reassure my dark-eyed visitor. "Yes, but we got it set and everything, so we should be fine."

"Are you in pain?" he demanded, his eyes boring into mine as if to ferret out a lie.

I glanced over my shoulder, to where Jacob was still standing, face impassive. "Yes, but my grandfather is trying out different forms of medication. We've never had to deal with this with me before. My parents, of course, aren't, um, breakable."

His anxious, hard features softened at once. "Ah, true. That is because they are not like you and me! I have something I have used for pain. A plant extract. I will prepare some to bring to you, if you would like. I have found it to be very helpful."

"Really?" I grinned, thinking that Nahuel might just be very handy to get to know, after all, if he would quit looking at me with all that "expectation" flowing from him and just _talk_ to me. "That would be great!"

He smiled at me, then looked beyond me to Jacob and his smile faltered. "Tell me, dear Renesmee, who is that?"

"Jacob?"

"Yes. I remember him from before, when I was a guest in your home in Washington. You – you ran to him, yesterday and were with him last evening. Is he a bodyguard? Your father is very protective of you, but I cannot imagine you requiring one with all of _them_ about."

I tried not to grin too broadly. "Jacob is my oldest and dearest friend, companion, hunting partner and protector," I told Nahuel. I did not say that he had given me my first kisses, that I adored him, that I wanted nothing so much but to spend the rest of my life with him... Those were private things. "He has always been with me."

"And he is... a shapeshifter? Werewolf? We have legends of shapeshifters among my people, too." Nahuel looked uncomfortable and his next words were whispered. "Did he hurt you? They are very dangerous to our kind."

I rolled my eyes. "Jacob's my _protector_, Nahuel. He keeps me safe. No, this was just stupid on my part, that's all." I shook my head and sought to redirect him. "So. Would you like to come in? Are you alone?" Manners, manners! "Would you like something to eat?"

"Oh! I forgot! I brought you a gift, lovely Renesmee." He moved away from me to hop over the low stone wall. "Come!"

Reluctant to leave without my Jacob, I followed only slowly, beckoning to Jacob to stay with me. He was at my side in a beat of my heart and I took a deep breath filled with relief.

Nahuel appeared annoyed, but too bad. After one more long look at Jacob, he made a visible effort to ignore him. "Renesmee. I went searching for a perfect gift for you when I heard you would be relocating to my native jungle."

Alarmed, I still tried to be polite. "Oh?"

Excitement flashed in his venomed smile. "Yes! I thought, with it, you could show me how to hunt as you do."

Curious but also uneasy, I held back. "What is it, Nahuel?"

He pulled a handle and a wheeled cage appeared. "It is the _nahuel_, the jungle cat for which my mother named me, so long ago."

I shrank instinctively into Jacob's muscled body as I saw the caged cat. His arm went around me, tense, as if ready to snatch me up and run at the slightest provocation. Nahuel seemed both pleased at my fear and annoyed at my response to it.

He opened the cage door. "He is not a fully grown hunter, yet, but he has been well-fed. I have not," he told me, again ignoring Jacob, "tried to hunt an animal for food. I was waiting for you, for I know that your family does not prey on humans."

"It'd be cannibalism," I stated, unable to keep the distaste from flattening my voice and expression. "I have drunk human blood," I admitted, "but it was always from a blood bank, from a donor, who was paid." I shuddered at the notion of hunting another person, unconsciously reaching for Jacob's hand.

His fingers were stiff with tension. I tried to calm myself as the jungle cat stepped warily from its cage. The cat was a mottled black in color, with huge paws. It sniffed the air, whiskers quivering, as it came to stand next to Nahuel, who seemed to calm it with only a hand. I wondered how he did that.

"If you can calm all animals like that," I remarked, "hunting should be no problem."

He grinned widely. "Thank you! It is a gift. Your father and mother are gifted, as I recall. Did they pass on any of their talents to you?"

Something stilled my words for the briefest of instants. Then, I smiled, hopefully naturally. "I dance. And I like to sing. So I guess I inherited those talents from my father." I smiled up at Jacob, trying to tell him with a glance not to say anything about my _sharing_. I just felt like I didn't want Nahuel to know. He made me uneasy, friendly though he was.

Nahuel didn't appear to notice my hesitation. "Ah! Singing and dancing? I would enjoy hearing you, Renesmee."

I blushed and glanced to the ground. "Another time, perhaps. When I am more comfortable."

His tone was nothing if not accommodating when he agreed.

Jacob cleared his throat. "We should be going inside. The clouds are blowing this way."

"And I need some more medication," I whispered to Jacob. I knew Nahuel would hear, of course, but the whisper indicated that this was not something I wished to discuss. "Where's Mom?"

"Do you need her? I can find her, no sweat," Jacob told me, carefully not using my nickname. He was quick.

"Please?"

He was gone in just a few long strides and I turned back to Nahuel. "Let's go inside. I'd like to hear more about your pain medicines." Leading the way back indoors, I said, "I don't know anyone like me, so this is quite an opportunity!"

Mom was already waiting for me, with my latest medication in hand, so that I could take it before continuing my conversation with Nahuel. She stayed for several minutes and we listened to Nahuel discuss different aspects of life as a half-breed.

When he wasn't trying to be so pushily charming, Nahuel was a great guy. I enjoyed his perspectives. He'd lived a long time and he had lots of information. Jacob was never far away, though he was working on a laptop computer. I wondered if he was playing a game or taking notes or what.

After a while, he cleared his throat. "Renesmee?"

I almost smiled; Jacob never called me that and it felt like he was asking for someone else. "Yes?"

"Can you come show Quil your cast?"

Inwardly, I winced. "Excuse me, Nahuel. This'll just take a sec." I rose carefully and moved to the other sofa, where Jacob had been working. His fingers flew on the laptop's keyboard. "Do you have the camera on?"

He pushed a button. "Yep. Go ahead." His face was carefully neutral.

I winked at him privately before looking into the tiny camera that was an integral part of the laptop. "Hi, Quil! Hi, Claire! Yeah, I was just brilliant and got myself hurt." Waving the neon-orange cast in front of the camera, I sighed dramatically. "Hope neither of you are as clumsy as I am. Hope we can get up to see you eventually. I have been wanting to see where I was born."

Jacob interrupted me, putting his face next to mine so that our cheeks touched as he looked at the camera. "It's pouring rain here right now. I guess we could tell her that it's exactly the same up there, but colder, huh?"

Since his cheek was touching mine, I got sneaky and shared a lightning-fast image of us kissing, right there while he was on camera. His quick look of surprise and the twitch of his lips was all the reaction I got from him. He's good.

"Anyway," I continued for the camera, trying to look as innocent as possible, "we're meeting new people, here, and already learning lots of new things. Tell Jacob's father hello from me," I concluded.

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Me, too. All right, guys. Say hi to everyone for me. For us. Bye." He stopped recording and eyed me. "Billy will be oh-so-thrilled. What do you mean you want to go up there?"

"I just do," I said, shrugging and feeling some pain in both arms as I did so. "My memories are all a little lopsided. I was pretty small."

He ruffled my hair. "We just got here, Restless. Maybe for your next birthday, we can take a trip."

Next birthday. "Everyone's making a big deal out of my _next_ birthday," I muttered as I returned to my seat. Nahuel had not commented during this exchange, but I had felt his eyes on me the whole time.

The Bidding at Auction gaze. I was uncomfortable again. He smiled. "You understand that you will probably have reached your full physical maturity by your next birthday, Renesmee," Nahuel reminded me. "That is undoubtedly why. I know it is something I would be looking forward to." He flashed a look at Jacob, but then resumed ignoring him and looked to be about to say something else when my father spoke from the stairs that led up from the lower work areas in the basement.

"Ah, Nahuel. Good morning. Or, rather, afternoon," he said, his voice smooth but distant. "You wished to speak to me?"

Nahuel looked discomfited – something new – and stood. "Yes, Edward Cullen. I would."

Dad nodded; of course he had heard Nahuel's thoughts and I wondered what this was going to be about. Dad looked at me, an unfathomable expression in his golden eyes. "Now is probably the best time, if you'd like to come to the library?"

I blinked and watched them head around a corner. There was a double-doored room that was already filled with books. Antique texts and modern pop fiction, we had it all.

Once he was gone, I collapsed next to Jacob, pain bothering me again. A headache, too, and I felt some indeterminate aches kind of all over. "I wonder if I'm ill," I murmured.

Jacob powered down his computer immediately and turned to me, examining my face minutely. "What is it, honey?" he murmured, checking my forehead for fever. Since he and I had the same body temperature – hotter than human – that made sense. "Your arm? Need more meds?" Regret still etched his husky voice and I shook my head. "My arm doesn't hurt any more or worse than anything else right now. It's like an all-over ache, Jacob," I said, trying to take a deep breath. "Do you suppose something out here doesn't like me?"

He frowned hugely, his shaggy brows coming together in a downward point over his nose. "Hmph. I don't suppose that cat had anything that jumped to you, huh?"

"With this skin? Needles can't pierce it, so I guess a flea would be outta luck."

"Good point." He cupped my face in his huge hands. "Maybe you just need to rest. Could be this bone thing is taking it out of you, you know? You've never been hurt before and your body's not used to it."

"Do you get all exhausted when you're hurt?"

He shrugged. "Some, but last time I broke anything was –" He dropped his hands, his eyes narrowing darkly. "When you were born."

I found a memory for him that might push the darkness away; I remembered my birth and knew it was a frightening time for everyone. With Jacob being Mom's best friend and practically family, I know it must have been hard for him, too. So I found a memory of him holding me. I had a vampire's gift for retention, and could replay it well. Just touching my face to his, closing my eyes and sharing it with him. He was huge, in my memory. Big head. I was so tiny, but I remembered warmth. He was the only one with me who was ever warm.

"Thanks," he murmured now turning his head to kiss me lightly. "I needed that."

"I know."

"Are you cold, now?" he asked.

I checked. "Nope. But," I added, turning to meet his eyes, "if you want to try to warm me up anyway, I won't complain."

He laughed softly. "With your admirer in the house?"

I scoffed. "Don't start. Please." Jacob had to know how I felt about him. He _had_ to. I tucked my head against the warm, muscled planes of his chest. "Maybe I am cold." I felt him chuckle again. The warmth did feel good against my head, though. Even my bones ached a little. "Maybe I'm sick, too," I said, moving away immediately. "I don't want to give you anything. Weird, being half-human, you know?" I got up, wincing as my body protested. "I, um. Hm."

"Nessie, honey, just sit down again. Let me get your Mom, okay?" Tension arced in his deep voice. "Just stay here."

I collapsed again on the sofa, leaning my head back and trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

Jacob brought both Mom and Grandpa up. Both of their ice-pale faces were crinkled in concern. "Thank you, Jacob," Mom whispered, seeing me. I don't know what I looked like, but it must not have been too good. "We'll take her up to her room." I then noticed Grandpa's medical bag and rolled my eyes.

"I'll carry her," Jacob asserted, bending to scoop me up before either of the others could do so.

I blushed. "I'm not a baby," I muttered into his shoulder as he made a short trip of the rest of the floor.

"If you're in pain, sweetheart," Carlisle said, his voice smooth, "you shouldn't have to climb the stairs."

I endured the procession with me at its head all the way to my soundproofed bedroom. Mom flitted around Jacob — how, I don't know – to open my door and turn down my bedcovers. "Here, Jake."

Feeling stupid, I let him put me down with my head on one of my super fluffy pillows. He then moved to the end of the bed and stood there, arms crossed over his chest. Mom brushed her cold fingers over my face and smiled a little at me and then at Jacob. "Um, Jake?"

"What."

"You're going to have to scoot. Medical exam and all that."

"Mom!"

Jacob lost that flat, hard, self-condemning look in his eyes for a moment. "Oh right. Sorry, Bells. Sorry, Nessie." He brushed my toes with his fingers, his look now piercing. "Be right outside."

The door closed behind him and I puffed out a breath. "Really. I think I might just be sick or something. Weird rainforest bug."

Carlisle's smile was tight. "Maybe, but you've never been sick before. So, tell the doctor where it hurts, okay?"

The answer, by the time he had examined me, was _everywhere_. He gave me something – I didn't ask – that knocked me out completely. I only barely remembered that Dad was talking to Nahuel about something. I think I mentioned that, but if I did, my voice was fuzzy and my ears were ringing so I didn't hear an answer. And then, everything sort of floated away.

Waking up was the _worst_. Everything hurt. Everything. From my skull to my toes, I felt as if I were being pummeled from within, aching but unable to concentrate on just one ache. Everything hurt, in fact, except where I had broken my arm. So I thought about that and tried to open my eyes.

I moaned.

Instantly, I heard the shuffling bodies of at least half a dozen of my family. "Mom?" It was darkish, and I wondered how long I had been out. No lights were on, but that didn't mean anything, really. "Am I sick?"

I heard Jacob's heartbeat close to my head and tried to touch him. His voice was soothing, the heat from his body likewise as it reached me. "Hey, Nessie. We don't know. But we do have something new to try for the pain, if you want. Are you cold?"

I tried to focus, but it was hard. Everything hurt! "Hurts, Jacob." My breasts, hips, legs... "Cold. Yes." That would mean he'd hold me.

"Go ahead," Dad told him. I blinked and looked for him. He was sitting near me, next to Mom, on the edge of my bed.

Jacob carefully insinuated himself under me, shifting me to rest on top of him, as if he were another layer of mattress or something, propped up against the headboard. I felt the warmth of his body from hair to heel, with the addition of his arms wrapped lightly under my breasts and across my waist. I blushed, but it felt too good to protest. I _tried_ not to wiggle. I tried _not_ to wish we were all alone and that my dad wasn't there to read my mind or Jacob's. I wished I didn't feel so rotten.

_Daddy! What's wrong?_ I thought loudly, hearing the whine in my mental voice but unable to squelch it. _What's wrong? Am I dying? _ I didn't dare ask that aloud. Didn't want to scare anyone. I was terrified, though. Why was everyone just _watching_ me? Where was Grandpa? Tears burned in my eyes and I couldn't wipe them away. They just sort of leaked out, rolling down my face in hot streaks as Jacob's warmth surrounded me.

"No!" my father said, his velvety voice harsh. "No, you're not. We're not sure what's wrong, but no. I saw him reach for me before quickly withdrawing his hand. "Sorry. You need warmth, not ice."

I tried to smile. _ Sorry, Dad._

His touch was light through my nightgown as he briefly brushed my knee with one fingertip. "Love you, Nessie."

_Love you too. Hug Mom for me, 'kay? I hurt._

Stupid tears, dripping off my face. Stupid.

Grandpa appeared then and I felt Jacob tense around me. "Ready for more meds?" Jacob rumbled, his heart beat comforting against me.

"They're from Nahuel," Grandpa told me. I saw him exchange glances with Dad and wondered what that was all about.

Jacob held a cup for me. "Drink it, honey. It's okay." I thought I saw a bare hope of a smile at the corner of his lips. He tilted the small yellow cup to my lips and I grimaced. "I know it stinks, but it should help."

"If you say so." Holding my breath, I drank the whole, smelly, tea-like substance in as few swallows as possible. "Needs sugar," I told them all. They were watching, now. My entire family. I saw each beloved face around my bed. "Oh come on," I admonished them, trying to sound stronger. "I know you all have something _better_ to do tonight."

Jacob rested his cheek on my head and I sighed, closing my eyes.

**~*~**

_A/N: See, they ARE in bed together... _

So, does she have a jungle bug? Or is it something worse?

**Excerpt from Chapter 9:**

_So what is it, Edward?_ I asked finally.

"Nahuel. He wants to marry Nessie."

I skidded to a halt, with rain dripping on my fur in a gray-green light. _What?? She can't stand him! She doesn't trust him with her nickname or her talents or anything, Edward. You can't possibly take him seriously._

He had halted too, and again, he looked at me with that unusual air of surprise and appreciation. "Wow. And you didn't even mention yourself."

I snorted, tracing a circle with my muzzle. To remind him of my promise to her. _You know all that already. _

"I know, but I'm impressed."


	9. Jacob: So, sometimes history repeats

**A/N 1: We left Nessie thinking she might be dying. Don't worry...she's not! Below, you'll have a marginally better idea for what's wrong with her. And hey, it may not be entirely medically accurate, but she is a hybrid and Merck's doesn't cover hybrids!**

**Now, into Nessie's bedroom...**

**Thanks for reading! ~LJ**

_**9. Jacob**_

So sometimes, history repeats. Yeah. 

"Up again," Edward murmured to me as I tried to keep my girl warm. "We need to change the sheets."

I nodded blankly, refusing to accept that Nessie was so ill or whatever it was. The pain medication that Nahuel had brought had helped, she said, but it also made her talk like she was out of her mind, and we were hesitant to use it again. She started sweating profusely all over her head which made me think she really had picked up some weird jungle bug, after all. "Maybe it's just a flu thing?" I wondered aloud. "Body aches? Fever?" I remembered the flu, from the days before I was a shapeshifter.

In my arms, Nessie moaned again. I closed my eyes against the sheer helplessness that surrounded me. No, not a flu bug. My girl was way too messed up for that. Her hands twitched and I noticed something I hadn't seen before.

"Carlisle?"

The doctor was shaking out fresh sheeting while Bella readied a sponge bath. I'd be kicked out again in a minute. "Yes, Jacob?" His eyes were cloudy and growing darker, it seemed, by the hour.

"C'mere. Look at her arms. This one's longer...? Or is it just me?"

Carlisle froze. Eyed Nessie, measuring her arms with long looks. "I'll get my saw."

"What?"

"To cut off her cast! I think she's growing," Carlisle shot back over his shoulder before flitting out of the room.

Edward finished the idea for him, his voice rough with tension. "If she's growing, then the cast might be keeping her arm from doing so. That would be a source of more pain for her." He traced Nessie's face with a finger. "Of course. Why didn't I see it before. Look, Bella," he murmured. "She _is_ growing again. See her face?"

"What?" I demanded, too loudly. Nessie moaned again and I pressed my lips quickly to her forehead, getting an unconsciously-given sharing from her. She was dreaming. Not a good dream, either. Her mind-picture had her bound in chains, writhing. I groaned, too, softly. "It's okay, honey. We're going to make it better, hang on."

Bella and Edward eyed me curiously. "She's dreaming she's wrapped in chains and can't get out," I told them. Both of Nessie's parents gasped, pained.

"How'd you know? She didn't touch you..." Bella remarked, her cool fingers brushing Nessie's damp hair from her face.

I winced. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. "Uh, well, she kind of tried to, you know, communicate with me when her arm was broken and she was holding it together or whatever. She just sort of pushed my face with her forehead and was able to do the job fine, that way."

"Connected," Edward whispered. "Of course."

Carlisle returned then, a small powered saw in his hand. "This'll do just fine, but it'll be loud. Can't help that. Hold on to her; she probably won't like this." Without waiting for anything more than a nod from Edward, Carlisle powered up the small saw and the blade screeched into the fiberglass cast, sending obnoxious powder in a small fountain all around the blade.

Nessie stiffened and howled. "What are you doing!?"

"Hush, honey. Just getting you out of this thing. It's hurting you."

"Jacob!" Her beautiful brown eyes flew open, agonized. "Help me!"

"_How?_"

The noise ceased abruptly and Carlisle was handing pieces of the cast to Edward. "Nessie," the doctor began, a lock of golden hair falling to his forehead. "Can you move your hand?"

"Hurts..." she whispered, pleading for something with her eyes. I just didn't know what she wanted and it was killing me.

"Come on, Ness. Just wiggle your fingers."

"They're stuck."

"Try slapping me?" I suggested, trying to wipe the fear from her eyes. She snorted but did as I suggested, her feeble swat proving that it appeared her arm was healed. "You're wonderful."

"It's better?" she asked, sounding exhausted. I nodded and she bit her lip. "So why do I still hurt?"

Now that that was done, everyone was in a flurry to remake the bed with fresh sheets. I held Nessie as close to me as possible. "Do you still feel like you're bound?" I murmured over her sweat-streaked curls.

"Yes..."

"Doc."

"Yes, Jacob?"

I inhaled slowly, making sure I was keeping my temper in check, my body in check, so I didn't explode. "I see what you mean, about her growing. Why do you think this started? She and I were talking to Nahuel and he never mentioned _this_ happening to _him_."

"I don't know, but I have a thought on it." Carlisle avoided looking at me though, directing his attention to Edward. "Sometimes, needed growth in one part of the body accelerates growth in other areas. What if – what if this is a result of her break? The arm is solid, well healed from what I can discern with only a cursory exam. It doesn't appear that she is being injured in any other way, only that she's grown. But," he went on, "she hasn't eaten anything." He eyed Bella. "We're going to have to do something if this isn't on the mend by tomorrow."

Unnerved, I studied Nessie's face again. It did seem more fragile, the skin almost stretched... Her eyelids fluttered open, but the chocolate depths I loved were unfocused.

I shot a glance to Edward, too. _Reminds me of Bells_, I thought loudly at him. _ Not as bad, sure but... Would it work?_

He stared at me, jaw dropped in astonishment or revulsion, I couldn't tell.

_She drank it as a baby,_ I reminded him. _Bought and paid for._

"We don't have any," he rasped. Bella just stared at both of us, seeming as if she weren't entirely sure she wanted to know what we were discussing.

I set Nessie gently on the freshly-made bed and extended an arm out to Edward. _Sure we do. I can go down a pint without a problem, if it'll help._

The incredulity and shock that washed over his face was something I never saw before. "You'd do that?"

I snorted softly. _Of course. Even if my blood smells bad to you, she doesn't mind it. _He still was trying to figure out if I was for real about this. I rolled my eyes impatiently. _ Broken glass, etc., remember?_

His quiet laughter was as genuine as it was unexpected. "I never figured it'd be quite so visceral. Come on. Bella? Shall I send in Rose?"

"I can bathe my own daughter," Bella protested.

"Bells, she's at least three inches taller than you are," I reminded her.

She grinned in such as way as exhibited most of her vampiric smile. "No problem."

We men left the bedroom, Edward explaining my idea to Carlisle. He was more taken aback than Edward. "We don't need to resort to that now," he decided. "But, I do think that it's a good provision to make, just in case." He appeared abashed. "I should have considered..."

"Why? I mean, who knew, right? Go ahead. It's all good. How about I run one more patrol and then you can stick me?"

Edward took my hand in both of his. "Jacob. I don't know what to say."

"_Nothing_ would be good."

He shook his head. "She'd be upset if she knew this was being planned."

"If it does need to happen," I told him, "I'll do it myself. Kick you guys out and make her." I shrugged. "It'll work out."

"I believe it will." Then, he blew out a breath and said he'd come with me on patrol; he had something to discuss with me.

We took a different circle to patrol as the darkness waned to morning. Through the rainforest we ran, giant wolf and pale man. Even thinking it, I chuffed a little. Poetry? Vampires were a weird influence. Creatures scattered before us, and I was thinking that it would be good to go hunting, soon, just to get a feel for them. A taste for them. I missed having a pack to run with, too, to be honest. An Alpha gone solo was not much of an Alpha.

_So what is it, Edward?_ I asked finally.

"Nahuel. He wants to marry Nessie."

I skidded to a halt, with rain dripping on my fur in a gray-green light. _What?? She can't stand him! She doesn't trust him with her nickname or her talents or anything, Edward. You can't possibly take him seriously._

He had halted too, and again, he looked at me with that unusual air of surprise and appreciation. "Wow. And you didn't even mention yourself."

I snorted, tracing a circle with my muzzle. To remind him of my promise to her. _You know all that already. _

"I know, but I'm impressed."

I shook my wedge-shaped head. _Don't be. So what did you tell him?_

He indicated we should continue our patrol, so we did. "I told him we were not even considering that for her until she was fully grown, much as I said to you."

I growled, low in my chest. _That could be this week, you know. It's scaring me, Edward._

"Me, too. If this doesn't back off in a day or two, I'm not sure what to do. I'll go mad."

_Me, too. So how about we think positive, huh? Just to keep sane? Like say she does get all grown up like that this week_, I went on, in an effort to lighten the mood and keep either of us from dwelling on the idea that Nessie could be crying her eyes out from sheer agony back at the house without either of us there to comfort her, _Can I elope with her and head to Washington? She told Quil and Claire today that she'd like to see the place again, and, too, I'd kinda like to see my dad_.

He pulled a dangling branch from the nearest tree and swatted me on the shoulder with it. I chuffed again. _So how far _is_ your range, anyway?_ I decided that egging his fatherly instincts on would be good for our morale until we got back to her. _And do you know, she already looks older than either you or Bella? You'll have to change the Official Story._

This time, it was he who stopped in his tracks, his eyes peering back through the forest, seeing...what? I hadn't a clue. "I know. We'll have to make that happen...when this is...over... Straight line back?"

I nodded my agreement and he and I ran flat out back to the compound. _Just to let you know, I plan on staying with her when we get back. Don't try to kick me out._

"Wouldn't dream of it," Edward murmured, his voice still clear over the sounds of our passage.

I hit my place to shower and change before heading to Carlisle's office so he could drain me of a pint or whatever it was he thought Nessie would need. I opted on a button-down shirt to go with a pair of shorts, just for the comfort of it. Then, I found Carlisle.

"All right. Here's the local Red Cross," I quipped.

He was ready, with the needles and tubing and even the handy plastic pint bag. _Great_, I thought. _I feel like I'm in a movie._

Edward wasn't there, fortunately, or I'm sure I would have heard something. I watched the man I once called Dr. Fang run a final glance over his preparations before securing my blood supply at my inner elbow. "Do you think the blood is different when taken from me when I phase?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Don't think so. But we could always check if you want, sometime."

I didn't have to pump my hand or make a fist or anything, because my heart did a fine job pumping that bag full all by itself. "Feeling lightheaded?" Carlisle inquired.

"Nope. All's good. Can I go up to Nessie now? Will you put that on ice or what?" He extracted the needle, tied up the bag and bandaged the puncture on my arm. I angled a brow at him as he did so. "Werewolf, remember?"

"Force of habit, sorry. And yes, I will put this in the fridge. It really was good of you to volunteer, Jacob. I hope it isn't needed, though."

I had been sitting on my anxiety for quite some time, but it was starting to make me twitch as I rose to my feet. "Me, too."

Leaving Carlisle with his brand new blood bank, I took the steps a few at a time to the top floor of the house. At the end of the eastern hall, the door was open, the queen-sized bed surrounded by the entire Cullen clan. As soon as I entered the room, Bella approached and touched my arm.

"Jake, we had to give her some more of Nahuel's medicine. It was the only thing that dulled the pain enough. I know it was unnerving, but we had to to _something_." She bit her lip in the old way and continued. "Edward's found the rest of the blankets, but she's still not at the right temperature, he says."

"All right. Want me to go play hot water bottle?" I tried to smile, but it was an effort as I parted the vampires to reach Nessie's side. She was muttering and I wondered what all these worry-stilled family members had been hearing while Edward and I were on patrol and while I was getting my blood supply tapped.

Nessie _had_ changed while I was gone. Again. And the sheets on her bed were not the same as they were. I wondered who was doing the laundry; I was fairly certain no one had done laundry in this family since maybe the nineteen-fifties. Excepting Bella. "What happened?" I asked her now, while checking the changes in Nessie's appearance. Yesterday, she looked much like the average sixteen-year-old, but with more bodily grace and confidence. As the sun's rays touched the glass on her bedroom windows, however, she looked about eighteen or nineteen. Fear grabbed my guts. What was going to happen to her? What if she didn't stop this growth spurt and her body kept aging until –

Couldn't even think it. If it had, indeed, been triggered by breaking her arm and the healing necessary for that; I'd never forgive myself. If the imprintee – stupid word – was killed, that meant a vendetta on behalf of the Imprinted one. That was the reason why Sam's wolf pack in Washington had to revise their murderous intentions toward my Nessie. But what if _I _was the one who brought this about? I wouldn't be able to live with myself or with anyone else.

I looked down at Nessie now, curled against whatever pain she was fighting, and saw my whole reason for living. For her, I had moved from my family, my friends, even my country. Nothing else mattered but her. She _had_ to live through this. I had to believe she would.

Edward's clasp on my shoulder startled me. "We'll go ahead and let you get some rest, if you can, Jacob." A glance beyond him showed me that the room was now empty except for Nessie, her dad and me. "She still...hasn't eaten. Or had anything to drink. When she wakes up, please do what you can with that, okay?"

My stomach rumbled, too, at the mention of food. Edward grimaced. "Sorry, Jacob. I forgot. I'll get you a sandwich."

"Thanks."

Edward left and I slid myself next to Nessie on her bed, running a light finger over her skin. She felt feverish. Of course, she and I had nearly the same body temperature; always had. Her skin was dry, though. Not the healthy luminescence that was normal for her, but pasty and papery. Dehydration, maybe. "Come on, Nessie," I murmured, pulling her heavy hair from her neck. "Get through this." I kissed the back of her neck and pulled her up against me, feeling a faint tremor along her whole body as I did so. A small sound reached me as she conformed herself to me. I hoped she was getting enough heat for comfort. I closed my eyes and forgot about the sandwich. Just wrapped my arms around my girl and did my best to give her whatever I had that helped. We dozed.

"Jacob..."

I jerked awake and she winced. "Sorry," I murmured over her ear. "How're you doing, honey?"

"Hurts, Jacob. I had a dream I was Chinese."

"Huh?" I traced a light touch around her face as she haltingly turned to face me.

Her eyes opened and, through the pain there, I saw some humor. "May I?" she whispered. I didn't answer but she hitched herself up to touch her forehead to my cheek and then I saw. There were pictures I had seen in an old _National Geographic_ once. Of old women in China who had had their feet bound as tiny toddlers. Bound against growth, so that the bones broke and conformed to the confines of incredibly tiny shoes. It was considered a status thing. Erotic. Something. Horrible.

Nessie saw herself like that in her dream. Bound against growth.

I winced and moved my head a little from hers. "Honey, you're not bound at all. You're just wearing a nightgown," which was true, and I was doing my best not to think too much about that. The curves of her body, the heat of her skin and only a thin layer of fabric...

"But s'what it feels like, Jacob. Just like that. Think it's my skin."

"All over?"

"Not so bad, right now," she breathed, tucking her head under my chin and shuddering.

I wrapped my arms more tightly around her before remembering that would hurt. "Sorry." Inhaling, I tried to think of what to do and smelled the sandwich. My stomach rumbled again.

"Hungry..."

"You?"

"Can't eat," she told me. "Mouth hurts. Everything."

"Renesmee Cullen, you have to eat. You're getting dehydrated. What about something to drink?"

"Need to hunt."

Ah. I nudged her head up to look her in the eye. "Blood?"

She tried to edge away. "Yeah."

"Got you covered, Nessie." _Edward? We need that pint in Carlisle's fridge, now. Like for Bella, remember?_ "Anything else I can get you? Want some music or some meds or anything?"

The effort she put into smiling almost undid me. "Just you, Jacob. This is as good as it gets, right now." Her lips brushed my jaw and that was enough of an invitation for me. Mindful of her "bound" feeling, I was still eager to feel the smooth heat of her lips, the melding of her mouth to mine, the reminders that she was not going to die. No, she wasn't. She was going to be just fine. I barely touched her; her taste was enough.

We didn't even hear a knock on the door – as if Edward would have bothered – but fortunately he was the only one there. Neither Nessie or I moved, though she blushed faintly as her father cleared his throat.

"Sweetheart, you're awake." His warm smile and hopeful expression were almost tangible. "Jake said you were thirsty. Your eyes look better, now. We've been so worried."

"Not better yet, dad, but almost. I think." She sniffed, her small nose wrinkling. "Blood?" Edward nodded. She sniffed again and shook her head, looking confused. "No... Hm."

I couldn't hear her thoughts, but her dad could. He exchanged a look with me. "Yes, Nessie."

She pushed the cup away with a feeble gesture. "No. I won't. Nuh-uh. No way. Not even."

I took the cup. _Told you I'd take care of it. Give us a few. And thanks for the sandwich._

Edward passed his hand over Nessie's hair before kissing her forehead. "You need it, sweetheart. We need you to get better, okay?"

She scowled at him, her whole face totally involved with it from the frowning V on her forehead to the pouting of her lower lip. "I can without this. I _can_."

Edward's face was etched with concern. "Good luck." The door closed behind him with admirable calm.

She tried to scoot away from me, but she really didn't have the oomph. Her eyes welled with tears. "Jacob, I can't do that. It's...it's you."

I passed my thumb gently over her cheek to dry it. "It's already, ah, dispensed, Nessie honey. Sure you can. Come on. You said you needed a drink. Here. Please? So I didn't go through all that for nothing?" Hesitantly, so very slowly, she took the cup with its lid and straw. "If you're really getting better, this is the only time ever you'll ever need this. So stop growing already, huh?"

She stuck out her tongue at me. It was pale and the effort was obvious. "I'll do my best," she said, eyeing the cup now.

"Hey, it's okay. Drink, already."

"You're sure...?"

_Gently, gently_, I remembered. "It was even my idea, okay? So please, already. I _need_ you to be well," I added, my voice rougher.

Solemn, then, she nodded. And turned from me. I guessed it was harder on her than I thought. I picked up my sandwich off the white stoneware plate and munched. It was a little stale around the edges – I had managed a quick nap, I guessed – but roast beef was roast beef. With horseradish sauce. On rye. Excellent. Where did they get this stuff? I was trying to distract myself from the image of her stiff back and hunched shoulders, the sound of her drinking from a straw.

When I finished, I made a big deal out of laying back on the bed, stretched out so that my feet dangled off the end of it. Closed my eyes. Didn't want to rush her. It had to be a little weird to be drinking my blood. Okay, a _lot_ weird, but that was all right. I didn't look at her when she put the cup down on the night table. Didn't look at her, but felt her eyes on me. Heard her breathing. Felt the heat from her body. Heard her wincing and biting back a hiss as she tried to get comfortable.

"Do you want me to tuck you in or go back to sleep?" I asked quietly.

"Just a sec," she whispered. Then, I felt her nestle up next to me. I pulled a blanket on top of her. "Thank you. Better. You're so warm."

"I try. How's the binding?"

"Hurts, Jacob."

I figured. "Better than before or worse? Do you think you're going to need another pint or what?"

She snorted, but it was better than a howl of pain, so that was something. "Better. Like maybe it's not going to last forever."

Relief washed through me with a cool assurance. I smiled. "So if I fall asleep...?"

"I'll try not to bite you to wake you up," she teased.

**~*~**

_All right, all right, a little bizarre? Yeah, I know. But it only has to happen once, okay? :D_

_Coming in Chapter 10: You thought Jacob had a growth spurt in New Moon...? Nothing compared to Renesmee. Trust me._

**An Excerpt:**

Then, he crushed me to him and I did my best to crush him back. His lips in my hair, mine pressed to his skin. He, at least, felt the same. His heart pounded fiercely against me. It was exciting. It was reassuring. I felt safe. Not like a freak, but just like myself. Nessie Cullen. In that moment, I knew he loved me. Just like I loved him.

He cupped my chin in his hand. "Are you about done growing up?" he asked, his eyes glowing down at me.

"Heavens, Jacob, I hope so."


	10. Nessie: Freaking out comes in many forms

**A/N: Thank you so much for adding this story to your favorites or alerts! I like knowing people are reading. :) Thank you!**

**We left Nessie bound, essentially, in her own skin while her body finished growing into its full form. It has been a painful experience for her. **

**We return to find her alone (Jacob is working on something special for her, but she doesn't know what it is. Shh!), waking up to find a few changes. Welcome and otherwise...**

**~LJ**

_**10. Nessie**_

Freaking out comes in many forms.

I spent a total of two days wrapped in my own skin, half of that thinking I was going to die. I had time to think, when I wasn't medicated out of my own mind. _That_ was really bizarre. I don't know what was in that stuff Nahuel brought, but I don't think I ever want to be so... disconnected from myself again. It was scary. Still, it worked when nothing else worked, so that was something. But I got to think. I felt older, afterward. As if I'd aged in some basic kinds of invisible ways.

When the end of the pain came, it was a quiet moment. I had fallen asleep in the afternoon still aching, with Jacob wrapped deliciously around me, and woke up after dark all by myself.

At first, I was kind of sad about being alone. I wished... I breathed deeply, thankful that nothing screamed or throbbed when I did that. I wished that he had still been there. I remembered the feelings when he kept me warm. In front of my whole family, he had himself wrapped around me and no one said a word. I must have been really in danger, I guessed. I rolled over, looking at the big indentation in the other pillow, remembering...

Well, we hadn't always been surrounded by my family! Still, as he murmured to me once, I do have a mind-reading dad who was never too far away. So we were always kind of surrounded by family. Just as well, anyway. I was not in any shape to actually bite Jacob to wake him. At least, not 'til just now, and he wasn't even here.

The wish to see him and my family was suddenly overwhelmed by the wish to see _myself_. I kept hearing _she's growing_ for two days. Freaked me out. I wanted to see it first myself, so I didn't have to pretend not to care in front of my family if I was really and truly messed up. Slowly, I rolled off my bed and set my bare feet on the cool floor. No carpets for me, thank you! Give me wood or tile and I'm happy.

I was all lightheaded. The dark bathroom looked miles away. Still, I wanted to get there without calling for help. Biting my lip, I just told myself _to get there_. _Now_. And I did. Faster than I would have thought, but I felt unbalanced and leaned heavily against the door frame. And saw that I was, indeed, taller than I had been. It was as if I were wearing high heels all of a sudden.

I hated high heels.

Stomach flipping, I turned on the lights in my bath. It was a large bathroom, really. Big mirror with lots of lighting. Natural granite counter. Double sink. Toilet. Big shower with a seat in it. The same enormous bathtub...

And there was the full-length mirror. Aunt Alice had designed my bedroom.

"Okay," I muttered aloud. "Get it over with."

There was a twenty-year-old woman in the mirror. A taller woman than the girl who had showered upon arrival here in Brazil, anyway. I'd have to get Grandpa to measure her. The woman had long, thick bronze hair, with tangled curls. A sculpted oval face, with an attractively defined jawline, liquid brown eyes and pale skin frowned at me. Her nose was small, her lips full, and her lashes thick. Her eyebrows were a darker shade than her hair. This woman had a _figure_. That surprised me. New lingerie would be a priority. Suddenly, it was _me_ in the mirror. Curious, I turned around, seeing the firm abdomen and the flare of my hips when I held my cotton nightgown against my skin. My legs were made to run, being more muscular than slender. But still, well-formed, I guessed. They just didn't look like _my_ _legs_. I used to have more of a dancer's leg. Now I looked more like a track runner in _Sports Illustrated_. Weird. This didn't look like me. I knew, because everyone kept going on about it, that I might very well have looked like this by my next birthday, but to change so much in _two lousy days_ was just not right. I flung my arms down to my sides and growled.

And then I saw it and a memory flickered. My orange cast was gone, of course. Sawn off. It was hurting me. I was growing and...

And my left arm was an inch shorter than my right arm.

"Mom!" I turned and ran from my room, slamming the door behind me with way too much force. "Mom! Dad!" I didn't care what time it was; I needed my parents. I was completely unglued.

"Mom!" My mother appeared in her door. I lurched toward her.

She caught me, though I was now half a head taller than she. "Nessie! Oh, darling. You're up! Oh, oh, oh!" Her embrace was hard and cold, but it was my mother's so it was perfect. She held me from her a little, and her expression was regretful. "But, dearest, you're all grown up."

Tears filled my eyes at the sad notes in her bell-like voice. I started to speak and began sobbing instead, my words coming out in gasps. "I know... I hate it, Mom. I don't know. This person. I'm all. Freaked out." Dad came then, his arms coming around both me and mom and I continued crying into his cotton shirt. _Daddy! This isn't me! Who is this? What happened? My arms are weird! I don't feel right!_

He pulled away immediately, his eyes boring into mine. "Don't feel right? What's wrong, sweetheart?"

I shook my head, dashing tears from my eyes, though my arms didn't both reach the same and that was _really_ hard to handle without shrieking. The scream was there, inside. I could hear it. But I couldn't voice it. I'd scare everyone. "Look at me!" I demanded, sweeping my uneven arms over myself. "I didn't look like this before. I'm a freak! Look at my arms!" The weeping started again and I was disgusted with myself, but also felt a good measure of relief to be able to just bawl all over my parents. Really, they were the best.

Daddy scooped me up effortlessly and carried me back to my room. "Honey, this is you. It's just an older version of you. Jacob mentioned something to me, early this morning. You look older than either your mom or I, now. We're going to have to change our story."

_Are you trying to be funny?_ I demanded silently.

He frowned. "Guess I wasn't?"

"No!" That shriek was closer now, and I was fighting it off. Maybe if I could hold it off long enough, I could explode with a pillow over my face in the closet.

The yell had been enough, though. Suddenly, the entire family was in my room, hovering near the open door. Staring at me. And there I was, in a cotton nightgown that was way too small, in my estimation.

Blushing to the roots of my hair, I leapt to my closet and slammed the doors.

A tentative knock sounded shortly thereafter, while I sat in a crumpled heap on the floor near my armoire. "Nessie?"

"What, Aunt Alice?"

"Want some help?"

"Go away. I think I'm going to scream."

She ignored me and opened a door anyway. That did it. The pressure inside, the fear, the unsettling belief that _this wasn't me_, piled on top of one another and I threw back my head and shrieked and even howled. Like some other-worldly thing. A jungle creature without a home.

Aunt Alice closed the door again, but she stayed with me, crossing over to wrap her tiny arms around me and push her cheek to my hair. "I'm gonna need new lingerie," I sniffled, my throat raw from that scream. And all my clothes, they're so pretty and I can't wear them anymore."

"We'll find you some new stuff. Maybe we should go to Rio, you know? And go shopping!" Her light voice sang with anticipation. "It'd be fun!" I know she was trying to cheer me up – I did, after all, have to get dressed – but I just felt wretched, so she stopped and settled for pulling me up to quietly rummage through my drawers of frothy lingerie to see what I had that fit.

Which was why I could hear the leaping footfalls of Jacob's return from wherever he was.

Seven voices hurried to tell Jacob that I was fine. That the scream had been mine, but I was just really disoriented. That I was now with Alice in the closet.

That was as far as they got before he yanked one of the closet doors off its hinges. Literally. "Nessie!"

I froze, for he seemed more ferocious than I could remember seeing him _ever_, and I'd seen him on the hunt, I'd seen him as a wolf, and I'd seen him in various stages of anger over the years. But this... This was wild. His hair was practically on end and he was trembling all over.

Forgetting the lacy camisole I was holding, I crossed immediately to him to put my hands on his chest, where the unbuttoned edges of his shirt parted over the hot brown skin. "I'm okay," I told him. "Everything's fine. I just had a moment."

The tension from my family was thick; last time he had phased in front of me, I'd had my arm broken and all this other stuff had happened. I could see Jacob's fear of that as well, as the fire left his eyes. I could feel his probing look sweep my body, making sure I was okay, after all. He breathed. The tremors left him.

Then, he crushed me to him and I did my best to crush him back. His lips in my hair, mine pressed to his skin. He, at least, felt the same. His heart pounded fiercely against me. It was exciting. It was reassuring. I felt safe. Not like a freak, but just like myself. Nessie Cullen. In that moment, I _knew_ he loved me. Just like I loved him.

He cupped my chin in his hand. "Are you about done growing up?" he asked, his eyes glowing down at me.

"Heavens, Jacob, I hope so."

A chuckle made the rounds of all my family and I blushed, peeking around Jacob's broad shoulder to see them all smiling at us, in attitudes ranging from mild amusement to riotous innuendo.

Jacob stepped back a bit, promised to fix my closet door, and left, saying, "I sort of killed the carving I was working on for you, Ness. I have to see if I can fix it."

**~*~**

After that, things sort of settled a little, in the Cullen family. As much as was possible, anyway, for a family comprised mostly of vampires.

Several things braided themselves together over the next few months. Everyone's studies and/or trades commenced fully. Grandma Esme planned extensions of the current building, and was already thinking ahead to the next relocation and what kind of house might be fun to build next. Grandpa Carlisle was doing research on native medicines, with the assistance of local people. In this, he was assisted by my mom, who was researching the myths and legends of the tribes in the rainforest. The threat of the Volturi, I knew, was never far from her thoughts or my father's. Jasper and Emmett scouted the area for other vampires, nomads or covens. They plotted the maps of various hunting grounds, and kept track of the predator/prey ratios for a hundred miles around. Aunt Rosalie actually wanted to design a new wardrobe for me, so she and Aunt Alice were very much occupied with that. I would probably have a big shopping trip to Rio or who knew where before Christmas.

Jacob and his computer were busy, too. He was working on a degree online, which I wanted to try. He was also involved with more carving as well as maintaining the family vehicles.

My father was the most widely busy in the family. His activities ranged from composing on his piano to helping Mom with her research to helping Grandpa Carlisle in his work, to superintending my education.

All my life, I had been educated at home. My strange growth pattern made any other option impossible. So I had been taught in the family, where centuries of knowledge and wisdom were combined to make a truly excellent learning environment. I spoke Spanish and Portuguese fluently and was learning French and Greek. My math went up to Calculus, but I didn't feel like going further with that. My literary tastes spanned centuries and genres, and I could write about anything...if I felt like it. Musically, I played the piano and drums and could sight read almost any score. I sang alto. World history was enacted in the history of my own family, to an extent, and I could read about anything they couldn't tell me.

So I was well-educated. I just had no papers to show for it. No diplomas. No degrees. And, watching Jacob work on his, I really wanted to do that, too.

I also had to figure out what to do about my life. I felt useless. I gave a focus to my father's superior teaching abilities, to my aunts' fashion design instincts and even to my grandfather's medical interests...

But what would be _my_ focus?

I hadn't an idea. I only knew that I wanted to be with Jacob forever and I didn't know how to make that happen.

Nahuel, fortunately, had disappeared for a while. His last meeting with me was rather anticlimactic.

"Renesmee!" he had called from the door on the first morning I was downstairs, dressed and on my feet. Jacob, of course, was with me. I was wearing a loose sundress, for it fit. The lingerie question was still a problem, but between us, Aunt Alice and I, we had cut and redesigned some of my "younger" pieces to fit. Sort of. Jacob acted just like a bodyguard, wearing a white t-shirt and pair of khaki slacks and working on his laptop again, just like last time. His expression was blank, impassive, but I had a sense that he was really, really irritated with Nahuel.

"Nahuel," I said, holding out a hand to him. He took it eagerly and eyed me with a sparkling glance. "Thank you for your pain medicine. It was very effective." That it made me kind of crazy while under its influence, I didn't feel I needed to tell him.

We visited, and he managed to tell me that he had spoken to my father. "About what?" I asked.

He spoke very quietly, but decided to ignore Jacob and just go on with it, I guessed. "About asking you to marry me."

A huge blank page floated in my mind. Then, I blinked and managed, "Oh? He hadn't told me that." I wanted to ask Jacob if _he_ knew about that, but decided not to. If he wanted to be a bodyguard, fine. I'd pretend he was part of the sofa, too. "I, ah, am quite surprised," I told him. "I'm only six."

His smile was appreciative, but also too familiar for my comfort and I stiffened when he said, "Indeed, but you certainly seem to have reached the stage of maturity of my half-sisters. They look quite like you do."

I gulped, and heard Jacob shift a little on his sofa. "What - What did my father say?" That would be the right thing to ask. The polite thing. I didn't want to tell him to his face that there was only one person on the planet I'd ever marry and he was not it!

Nahuel took my hand in his. "He told me I still had to wait to ask you until your birthday. I do understand and I respect his decision. I will, then, ask to return shortly before that time, to spend time with you."

That gave me almost a year. Almost. I could surely figure a way to turn him down nicely in a that amount of time. "Um. Thank you, Nahuel. I am honored to be asked and I will see you next year." My heart was thudding with a burgeoning freak-out moment, but I managed to keep my sanity.

"I'll leave your gift, then, here, to remember me by, lovely Renesmee." He actually kissed my hand before he left. I washed it immediately thereafter.

No sooner had I felt confident that my only problem was reorienting myself to my new body than I met someone ... new.

It happened at an odd time. Mom and Dad were hunting. Jacob was sleeping after having gone on some mysterious trip that he wouldn't tell me about. He only kissed me before he left and told me to behave myself while he was gone. It was only for a day, but he and I were never far from one another, so it had been a stressful day.

I was practicing a form of kendo, because my uncles were practicing it and wanting to teach me so they could be better themselves. I was in the cleared courtyard in front of the house, with the sun beaming down between a floating and rapidly-moving cloud layer.

"Good afternoon," a musical voice called in Portuguese from the jungle perimeter. "Is this a private residence or a government installation?"

I spun, my kendo stick at the ready, the sun glancing off its bamboo surface. "Hello," I said in the same language, cautious because our family is always wary of strangers. "We're a private residence," I told him. "Are you lost?"

He came forward then, and I could see the pale quality of his skin, despite his native coloring. His eyes were the deep red of the recently-fed vampire with a traditional diet. I shuddered to think where he might have been hunting... "My name," the stranger said, "is Joham. I was just traveling through this area after a long absence. I didn't recognize this building and thought I might come investigate."

There was a quality to his voice that was compelling, that relaxed me despite my misgivings about his probable lifestyle. He approached the fence and remarked upon my kendo stick, the appearance of the house, and so on until he was standing right next to me before I was even aware of it.

Then, he smiled into my eyes. "I've never seen anyone quite like you, before," he murmured, his tone intimate and suggestive.

It was then that I shook my head and moved away. Different vampires have different gifts and I was suddenly sure that this Joham was gifted as much as Uncle Jasper was, in manipulating moods or something. Putting my kendo stick in front of me, I tried for a casual demurral. "Every person on earth is unique, you know. Even twins have some small difference, usually. At least by the time they're grown." I stepped away again.

He seemed about to say something else but pursed his thin lips and asked if I was alone. I quickly told him I wasn't and offered to fetch "my cousin" from the house. Meaning Jasper.

That was another thing that was settling in uncomfortably: _The Revised Family History_. I was still registering protests on that one.

"Your cousin?" Joham repeated. "No, I don't think that will be necessary. I am sorry, dear lady, if I have made you uneasy. Please accept my apologies and forgive me, if by chance we meet again."

"Go in peace," I said formally, just like Grandpa Carlisle would say. And my mysterious visitor left.

I abandoned my kendo practice and was back to playing the piano – I felt immediately safer indoors – when Jacob woke from his nap, later. Finding me alone in the music corner of our first floor, he stepped stealthily behind me and nuzzled the back of my neck, a low, playful growl in his throat that I found impossibly sexy, so that my toes curled over the piano's pedals. I swallowed hard and tried to keep my fingers on the white ivory keys, but Jacob was persistent and I was eventually persuaded to go hunting with him.

While I changed into something suitable – shorts and a tank top – he phased and waited for me in the courtyard. I had no qualms whatsoever about running off and hunting with him. It was actually quite a ride, especially to the newer, longer-limbed (mostly) and more, ah, adult physique. Feeling Jacob's body beneath me as we entered the dampening shade of the rainforest was almost a completely different experience. I felt the bunching of his muscles between my thighs, under my fingertips, and all the way down to my toes as I clung to his back during a fast run. And he could run fast! My hair streamed back behind me and I reminded myself to braid it, next time.

It was even sexier than his growl, if that were possible. I was breathless and even a little dizzy by the time he stopped, miles from the house. Jacob knelt to allow me to slide off and I practically melted to the damp, mossy earth. He eyed me curiously, his wolf-eyes still entirely Jacob in their expressiveness, before I covered my face and let him phase.

I did not peek, but the temptation was humming between us.

"Nessie," he said quickly – he was speedy in his transformations – "are you all right?" He circled me with his arms as if afraid I was going to faint or something.

Instead, I think I probably looked a little goofy and put my hands on his face. And shared with him exactly what it felt like to ride with him that day. Jacob's eyes widened, his lips spread in an intriguing smile before he murmured, "Oh, really?"

"Really."

"Wow."

The possessiveness in his kisses of the next few minutes was like I'd never felt before. His mouth blazed a trail down my throat, over my collarbones to my shoulder and I could hardly breathe. I tried to reciprocate, but he stiffened and held me closely against him, his chin resting on my head as his heart thundered almost violently against me. "Wow," I managed, in a much delayed, much less coherent echo of his earlier remark.

I hoped – sincerely – that my dad wasn't able to find us this far out. He'd never let me hunt with Jacob again! I wasn't sure what to do about us. Was Jacob waiting for me to have another birthday, too?

I didn't know if I could wait for him that long!

Christmas came and we exchanged gifts. Among the fine and generous gifts I received, as the youngest in the family, was a wooden box from Jacob. It wasn't big, as such things go. It was about the size of my hand. Carved from teak, he had decorated it with another image of us riding together, but this time, with me in the grown-up form I had, and his wolf was somehow giving off the impression of fierce devotion. So vivid, were the lines and shadings of the carving on the box's lid, that my throat clogged with the emotion I could feel there.

Of course, we were in front of my entire family, so I couldn't tell him this. I only managed to try for a light sort of voice to ask, "Wait? Where's the usual circle?"

His smile told me I was going to have to wait for that one.

The puzzle would have bothered me for days if not weeks or months, except for what happened on the day after Christmas. We were having a lazy day. Another holiday. Jacob and I were in the kitchen deciding if we would be baking something new or eating leftovers, when his phone rang.

"Who is it?" I asked, leaning over the island in the kitchen.

"My sister, Rachel."

"Tell her hello for me."

"Rachel, hi!" he began, "Nessie said to say –" He cut off and I had a cold feeling in my stomach that Rachel did not approve of me or something. I had never met her and I did wonder what his family would say about our relationship... Then, though, Jacob went pale under the natural rich color of his skin and I gripped his hand.

"Jacob?"

He met my eyes but spoke to his sister. "Sure. Of course. As soon as I can get there. Right. Yes. Tell him. Thanks. Bye."

My lungs wouldn't work. "Jacob?"

His eyes – an instant, disbelieving grief in them I'd never seen – were wet. "My dad. He's had a major heart attack. I need to get home.

**~*~**

**A/N 2: Yep, Billy Black has had a heart attack! **

**I have to tell you something, here, since you've come with me half-way through this story already... I am not always kind and gentle with my characters. Or their family and friends. Just a warning!**

**Excerpt from Chapter 11:**

Exhausted, yes, but I wasn't insane. "Run that by me again? I thought you said I had to marry your daughter."

"Not for real, but for appearances, yeah. Her other identification is in that name already, so that shouldn't be a problem. I think. Hm. She'll just need a ring," Bella was saying, mostly talking to herself.

Something nudged my conscience and I shook my head. "Wait. What? Are you serious?" In spite of the hour, I called in my head: _Edward? Bella's trying to marry me off to your daughter! _


	11. Jacob: Getting permission

**A/N: We left Jacob and Suddenly-Full-Grown-Nessie in the kitchen after he had received word that his father, Billy, has had a heart attack. This was after, of course, Nessie was informed that she would be receiving a marriage proposal from Nahuel on her next birthday and after she met Joham (Nahuel's father), who may or may not have tried to seduce her. She's not sure. Because she never mentioned it to anyone. Yes, really. It comes up, later.**

**Thank you for reading, for letting me know your thoughts, and for all the adds and inclusions! ~LJ**

**So now, we rejoin Jacob, who is planning to fly home to see his dad, and is reminded of a certain small fact about his life as an imprinted shapeshifter...**

_**11. Jacob**_

Getting permission has nothing to do with it.

I don't remember much of what happened, the days after Christmas.

Lucky for me, I didn't have to be firing on all pistons. Nessie did that for me, making sure I had a flight and connections from here through Dallas to Sea-Tac and the right papers to travel with. Packed my clothes. She checked my batteries for my laptop. Everything. I registered all of it with a hollow feeling, able to think only of my dad, who was up in La Push, thousands of miles away. I wouldn't have remembered to eat or anything, probably, if Nessie hadn't coaxed me into doing so. She stayed with me after the first nightmare hit, and every night thereafter.

It was only the morning I was scheduled to go, while I was already envisioning myself on the plane, in the air, on the reservation, that it hit me: I couldn't leave her behind. It was only my grief that had overshadowed my Imprint. If I had left, I had no idea what would happen. Our stories said only that being apart was not advised. I had left her for one day, in the autumn, and that had been all right. But I was getting edgy there, by the time I was on my way home. Edgy like I couldn't focus.

Made me think that if I was away from her for more than a day, my focus would suffer even more. What happened when your source of gravity wasn't there? When the sun didn't rise?

I had been in bed, thinking about this, and I heard her on the sofa in the other room. As much as I would have enjoyed having her with me, I would not trust myself to control my phasing when my emotional state was unsteady like it was. I rolled out of bed and, already in my sweats, left her a note to tell her I was at the main house.

Once there, I looked up Bella, who was in charge of our paperwork. She was in the library; I followed her scent.

"Bells," I blurted, exhausted, worried and now agitated about leaving Nessie. "Got a problem."

A leather-bound volume of _Jane Eyre_ in her hand, she crossed to me in a blink. "What is it, Jake?" Raking a studious gaze over me, she shook her head. "You look okay, but you probably should go hunting."

"Blood. Your answer to everything," I jested weakly. "No. I just remembered. Nessie."

Bella stilled. "What about her?"

"This sucks, but I gotta ask you to let me take her with me. I can't be away from her so long without losing it."

Comprehension dawned all over her pale, perfect face. "Ahhh, yeah. The imprinting thing."

"Yeah."

Her smile was rueful. "You know, I sometimes forget all about that. She's so entirely in love with you. Now don't tell her I said so."

That Bella _had_ said so surprised me, but I was too numb to say much. "Well, that doesn't seem to have anything to do with my head."

"She has a passport and everything, but it's a little outdated."

"Vanessa Wolfe, right?" I said, remembering that much, anyway. Bella nodded. "So what does that make her. My _sister_?" I said, trying to smile. "That'll never fly."

"Shoot. Right." That worry-triangle appeared between her brows.

She was so quiet for so long, I finally nudged her with a finger. "What?"

"Sorry, Jake. Just thinking hard. Um. Okay. Of course she can go with you. There really isn't a choice, is there?" I shrugged, but knew that she was right. "Okay. I'll need your itinerary so I can get her tickets, too."

"Drawing a blank, Bells. Nessie took care of all that for me. She was asleep when I left."

Nessie's mom drilled a hole in my head with her eyes. "Where?"

I blew out a tired breath. "The sofa, damn it. I'm not stupid. Besides, I promised, remember?"

She pressed my shoulder in apology. "Sorry. Mom thing. All right. I think..." She eyed me again. "I think you have to get married."

Exhausted, yes, but I wasn't insane. "Run that by me again? I thought you said I had to marry your daughter."

"Not for real, but for appearances, yeah. Her other identification is in that name already, so that shouldn't be a problem. I think. Hm. She'll just need a ring," Bella was saying, mostly talking to herself.

Something nudged my conscience and I shook my head. "Wait. What? Are you serious?" In spite of the hour, I called in my head: _Edward? Bella's trying to marry me off to your daughter! _

"Of course I'm serious. I can't make new papers for her in the next few hours. Not even Alice could swing that, I don't think. I'd need at least seventy-two hours... But you don't have that long. How's Billy?"

"I heard from them last night. He's home, but it's sketchy," I rasped.

Bella wrapped her marble arms around me and embraced me lightly. "You'll be there in time, Jake. You will. We'll do our best."

I dropped a kiss on her head, same as always. "Thanks, Bells."

Edward showed up then, appearing in near silence in the library. "Run that by me again?" he requested, his hair tousled as he adjusted the waistband on his trousers.

"Edward, Nessie has to go with Jacob to see Billy. Imprinting thing."

Edward's golden eyes narrowed in thought. "Right. Of course. Sorry, Jacob, that I hadn't thought of that." His lips thinned. "All right. Married, you said? Let's let Bella get the travel plans outlined and we'll wake up Nessie, okay? Bella, love? Will that work for you?"

"Of course, Edward. Not a problem." She had flitted out of the library in the next moment and I was left to deal with Edward on my own.

His voice was all but inaudible. "It is the only reasonable solution, of course. I'm sure she'll have no objection." He laughed shortly and shook his head as we reached the courtyard to cross to my small house. "I can't see holding you to anything, Jacob. I have to tell you that as her father. I'm tempted –"

We were in front of the door and I hesitated, wanting to make sure he said what he needed to say before we saw Nessie. "What, Edward? I'm too tired to handle cryptic stuff right now."

He studied my face in the graying light of the earliest morning. "You were waiting for permission," he finally murmured. "You have it." I stood there, absolutely speechless, long enough for him to chuckle again. "Ah, a moment to treasure: You without a snappy retort. All right. Let's go get my daughter. Do you have a reason for dragging her along last minute?"

"She's been wanting to go back to her birthplace. She can see Charlie. Meet my folks... I've got a few reasons. I could always tell her it's to keep me sane."

"The Imprint. Use your own discretion, then, Jacob. We – all of us – trust you."

I remembered something I was going to tell Bella. "I've, ah, got a ring already. Just for the record. Can I use it?"

It was his turn to be speechless. "How did you keep that one to yourself?" he finally asked, wonder in his voice.

In spite of my exhaustion, I winked at him. "I've learned a thing or two myself, these last few years." With that, I opened the door and we went in to alert Nessie as to her travel plans.

I expected her to be surprised and even happy, but she was nervous after Edward and Bella dropped us off at the airport. "Jacob?"

"What, honey?" I wondered, my mind divided and running full-throttle in two different directions.

"How are we doing this, again?"

I winced. Sighed. Cupped her chin in my hand and waited until her eyes were still and focused. "Your mother and father said you should travel as my wife," I said slowly, watching her features for each tiny shift. Her breath caught and her skin heated, but she didn't move otherwise. "We didn't have any time to make other arrangements."

"Your wife?"

I smiled a little. "Will you run screaming if I put a ring on your finger? I mean, you know..." I hated doing it like this, now that it came to it. Abruptly, I shook my head. "Come on. Right now." Instincts were good. I was seeking shelter and that part of my mind that was attuned to survival found what I wanted almost immediately.

"Jacob, what are you –"

There, there was a place that would work. Crowded place, this airport, but there was a media alcove with a privacy door and so I dragged her there, her hand warm in mine.

Once inside, I shut the smoky plexiglas door. A small computer terminal and a card-operated phone were inside. I ignored them and instead sat her on the small white chair, sitting on the floor myself. I took a quick breath, and decided that I couldn't do _flowery_. "Renesmee Carlie Cullen," I said, my voice rough with the sudden flow of emotion. "Will you marry me?"

"What?" She shook her head, her face flushing and paling alternately.

I took her hands in mine. "I love you. I know you know that. You love me. You know I know that. What I want to know now is will you marry me? I gave you a present on Christmas," I went on as tears filled her eyes and a smile tugged at her lips. "You asked about the missing circle. I have it, here, and it's yours, if you want it." I pulled the promise ring from my pocket. The one I had made for her. I also had another ring stashed away, but one thing at a time.

Her tears spilled over. "Jacob... Yes. Yes, please, yes. It's all I've ever wanted." She extended her hand to me and I slipped the Quileute promise ring on her finger.

I'd always kind of seen it there in my mind, but it was a heavy sort of happiness to see it for real. "Ness," I murmured, "it's all I've wanted, too." A few other things came to mind to tell her, but not now. That had to do with the whole Imprinting thing and I couldn't handle that. Not here. Not now. Not in an airport. Not when I was in Brazil and my dad was possibly dying in Washington. I rolled up to one knee and kissed her, right there behind the plexiglas, with who knew how many interested pairs of eyes watching the crazy American couple.

A voice came through the speaker overhead. _"Vôo 1219 a Dallas, EUA, embarcando agora." _

"That's our flight, Jacob," Nessie breathed. She touched her hand to my cheek and did a very thorough job of communicating her joy to me.

Her hand in mine, we hurried to our gate. I wondered if her joy would be quite so complete when she heard about why I was really taking her with me. If she would be freaked out to know that I loved her, yes. And that I had loved her almost since the moment she was born. I showed my phony ID as Jacob Wolfe and she showed hers as my wife, Vanessa Wolfe, we got our names checked off on some list and were seated.

Of course, Bella had arranged for Nessie and I to be seated together, in first class. I let her have the window and was glad that Bella had secured that first row for me. I needed the leg room.

Once in the air, worry about Billy took pole position. Problem was, it was a position that I could not influence in any way, requiring me to constantly remind myself that I was helpless, like that. I needed to find something else to think about.

Nessie had a smile on her face. Not a big one, but a reflective one. We were traveling north, so the sun was on the other side of the plane and she could gaze out her window without a glare. "Hey."

She turned to me, her expression bordering on amazement and concern. "You all right?" Then, she waved the question away with a small gesture. "Sorry. How about, _Can I do anything to make you smile?_"

So of course I smiled a little. How could I help it? It was almost an automatic response, doing what would please her, what was good and right for her. "Just breathing is good, Nessie. Or you could talk to me."

The melting chocolate eyes that I had loved for years moved closer to me. "What would you like to hear? About how relieved I was that you decided to take me with you? I had wanted to come, you know. I just didn't want to...intrude, I guess. I mean, sure, I wanted to go see your home and meet your family and all, but I didn't want to throw myself into a family emergency."

I took her hand and laced her fingers with mine. "I'm sorry it was so last minute. Sorry everything was."

"May I?" She leaned into me, pressing her hand to my face again, and reminded me how happy she was. "So please don't apologize," she concluded on a whisper. Then, she pushed out a breath. "Subject change?"

"All right," I allowed. "What's on your mind?"

"Grandpa Charlie."

That was going to be a problem, but at least it was one she and I could work on together. "Yeah. Um, I didn't get any word on that, from your folks. What do you want to do?"

"I want to see him, Jacob. I just... I just don't want him to be freaked out. I mean, I don't think he's seen even a picture of me in a couple of years..." Her eyes shadowed and she leaned back in her seat. "I grew up."

"I remember when I told him about you," I said, to distract her. "He was so surprised, but real happy to be a grandpa."

"What'd you tell him?"

"That you were amazing," I whispered, bending to kiss the top of her head. "The most wonderful girl in the world."

"Really? Even then?"

Caution screamed in my face then, maybe too late, but there it was. I kept my face smooth for her, kept the smile in place. "Yep. He thought you were the cutest baby in the world. Must be the big brown eyes," I went on, smiling into hers and relaxing in relief that she was not pursuing the _even then_ part of her question.

"I like your eyes better," she confided, a blush washing under her skin. Durable skin, beautiful, but also confining. I had to remember that. "They're so alive."

I brushed her face with my fingers and sighed. "I'm sorry I've been out of it, lately. You had to do so much work for me."

"No! I like it! I mean, look, Jacob. My whole life, you've been doing stuff for me, you know? Being able to give something back is all I've wanted to do for months. I love you."

Hearing her say it was perfect. Calmed my insides. Eased my worries about my dad and about her knowing the whole truth and nothing but and all of that. "You're still amazing," I told her. "I love you, too."

She smiled and rested her head against my arm. "So. Charlie."

"Right. What about we see my dad and you can call Charlie. He'll know about Billy, I'm pretty sure, so we might even run into him."

"Great," she whispered. "That'd be all he'd need." She cut herself off abruptly and grimaced. "Sorry, Jacob. Let's see your dad first and worry about me and Charlie later. You are my first priority." It was an expression familiar to my ears; her father said it often enough regarding Bella.

So I let her have her way. There was every possibility in the world that we'd see Charlie before we were ready to. And that he might even recognize his granddaughter. Maybe. And then the whole supernatural world would come crashing on his front porch again. Well. He had had a few years to adjust, and he was stepfather to another couple of shapeshifters, father to a vampire and father-in-law to another one.

I used to live without believing in the legends, too. Until I became one.

We had just finished a semi-decent in-flight meal when the captain of the plane notified the passengers that there was an unseasonably cold bout of weather in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. High winds, freezing temperatures. Landing would not be a problem and for those whose trips were ending there, it should be fine. Anyone making connecting flights, though, might have delays. We were told to check in with our connecting flight's flight counter to get updated information upon landing.

"Oh, no," Nessie murmured, her eyes burning with worry for me as the plane started a very gradual descent. "What do you want to do, love?"

"Get my feet on the ground, for starters. I'll call Rachel when we have better information. You should call your folks, too."

She gripped my arm tightly with both hands as she rested her head on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Jacob."

I was sorry, yes, but also... Overlapping the worry I had for Billy, there was a feeling that was far from apologetic when, at the airport, the airline gave us overnight vouchers for a hotel that was barely five minutes' shuttle-drive away. When, with only our carry-on luggage in hand, we checked in and got our room key.

"Here you go Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe," the desk clerk said, her voice sympathetic. "And here's an overnight package. Toothbrushes and a razor. Hope everything is cleared up tomorrow."

"Thank you," Nessie said, a shadowed smile in her voice. "You've really been most helpful."

Hand in hand, we rode silently up the elevator. Not being a mind-reader like her father, I didn't know what she was thinking. Exactly. But I knew my girl was nervous and that her brain was running a mile a minute. It was evident in her posture and the way she held her head. When the elevator doors opened, she jerked a little, as if surprised.

"You all right?"

"Yes, sure. Fine. Absolutely," she breathed, each word jerked from her. "I'm really good at spending the night with you, right? I mean, we've done this, right?"

I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or if it was nerves that were making her so jumpy as we found our room and keyed open the door. And then, my own nervous system went into hyperdrive.

"Not quite like this," I said, indicating she should enter ahead of me.

"No...not quite like this..." she agreed. I don't remember how the room was decorated or anything. I only remember two things. There was one bed. And we were thousands of miles away from home.

**~*~**

**TEXTUAL NOTE RE: The Promise Ring:**

In Breaking Dawn, (I cannot cite a page number because it's on my Kindle and I don't have page numbers) on Christmas morning, we read that "On her wrist was an intricately braided Quileute version of a promise ring." What i have chosen to do was say that this was indeed a VERSION of a promise ring, but given to a little girl. A grown woman would receive the proper, intricately CARVED version (which is what Jacob was working on when Nessie had her freak-out moment in her closet) to wear to indicate her "taken" status.

Just a minor liberty on my part, which I am explaining so that when this ring shows up again – because it will! – you'll know why it's there. Thank you!

**~*~**

I hope you have bid a fond farewell to Brazil, because we won't be returning!

**Excerpt from Chapter 12:**

"You had no choice?" I asked, hating the edge to my voice. "So this..." I mimicked his earlier gesture. "This too? No choice?" I was appalled at the tears that streamed suddenly from my eyes to drip in my hair. Appalled because I didn't know why I was crying. For _him_? For being unwillingly attached to me and my happiness? What kind of life was that? For _myself_? Because the love I knew I had from him – and I didn't doubt it, not for a minute – was not freely given and hadn't really even been deserved?


	12. Nessie: I didn't know how much

**A/N: With this chapter, FFN officially has more of this story up than other outlets. *laughing* Just for the record. Thank you for reading and interacting with me; truly comments are the way fan fiction writers get "reimbursed" for our time and effort, so we always appreciate the notes. :) **

**We left Jacob and Renesmee stuck in a freeze in Texas where they are compelled to spend the night in a hotel before resuming their journey to Forks and La Push. Both of them exhibited nervousness upon discovering that there was only one bed in that hotel room and they were thousands of miles away from home and all the, erm, restrictions that entailed.**

**But Jacob, being a man of honor (yes, really) has to make a confession. He's been dreading it for months. Nessie doesn't even see it coming.**

_**12. Nessie**_

I didn't know how much I could learn in one night.

There was one bed and we were thousands of miles away from home.

Those two facts were repeating themselves over and over to me as I tried too hard to be casual. Too hard. Of course it was too hard. And it was stupid, too. Jacob knew me better than anyone, except Dad and maybe Mom. I didn't have to try too hard for him.

I told my reflection that, in the bathroom while I brushed my teeth after my shower. Told that still-new woman in the mirror that she was _engaged_ to the incredibly beautiful man in the other room and that he loved her and had shed blood for her. Even gave up his _last_ _shirt_ for her.

I hadn't been expecting to be without my luggage for an overnight stay. I didn't have a nightgown with me. All I had was the spare shirt Jacob had with him. My lingerie I washed and hung to dry in the shower. I looked at myself in the mirror, clothed in a Jacob-scented black t-shirt, and blew out a nervous breath before rejoining him in the other room.

It was dark, but that didn't matter to us. He was laying in his slacks on top of the sheets, having turned on the air conditioning. We ran hot, he and I, making the A/C necessary even in December during a freeze warning. "Did you call your folks?" he asked softly, pulling the sheets from the other half of the bed with one arm so that I could climb under them.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah. Paul is meeting us at the airport tomorrow. I gave him the updated flight info and everything," Jacob told me, his voice husky and tired.

My turn. "Mom sends you her love."

"Did you tell her?" he asked.

I blushed. "Um, not yet. I didn't know if you wanted me to." He had been in the shower and I hadn't been brave enough to go in and ask him. _Do I tell my parents we're engaged or do you think they'll come unglued? _

He pulled me against himself, the thin hotel blanket and thinner sheet between us. "I think they'll be all right with it," he murmured into my hair. His breath moved over my scalp, warm and secure.

"I love you," I murmured. The words brushed against the taut skin of his body. His arm tightened around me and I arched my neck to find his lips with mine.

It was like throwing a match to a gasoline-soaked sheet. Gone was the usual, more restrained "the parents are around" embrace and here, with me in this bed, was the passionately possessive man I had only had glimpses of, before. He pulled me half on top of him, the sheets still between us. I felt his hands move urgently in my hair, his lips scorching my jaw, my cheek, his teeth grazing my ear so that I gasped.

I gripped him with my legs, kneaded him with my hands and did my best to make him gasp, too.

He did. And then he stilled, holding me a little away from him. Before he said anything, I slid a finger to his lips. "We're thousands of miles away from home," I whispered. "Thousands of miles away from any mind-readers. From anyone with ultra-amped hearing that isn't in this room."

He nibbled my restraining finger. "Ness... I love you. I _want_ you."

I thrilled to hear him say so, shivered in anticipation. But. "I hear a 'but' in there, Jacob."

His hand passed over my body, tracing lines and curves along my back, over my hip and to the bare skin of my thigh. His breath roughened and I kissed him. I wanted to delete that _but_. I thought I was making progress, too, parting my lips and tasting his...

Then he groaned and slid me off of him again. I guessed my delete key wasn't working so well. "Jacob... I don't understand," I finally said. "We're engaged and everything."

He covered me up with the sheet again and took my hand in his. On our backs, I listened while he spoke, his voice soft and almost sad. It chilled me.

"Nessie, I love you. I've loved you since the moment I first looked in those big brown eyes."

For most girls, this would be a delicious thing to hear. And it was for me, too. Except... "I thought that was, like, when I was born."

"It was. But then, when I loved you it wasn't like it is now. Don't go getting creeped out or anything, okay?" Concern edged his voice and I rolled over to reassure him with a touch to his face. He sighed. "You need to know something. Before."

"You're actually married to Aunt Alice?" I asked, trying to lighten his mood.

He snorted. "Funny."

"I tried."

He inhaled deeply, as if he was going to run himself flat out. "I was there when you were born. You know that."

"Right."

"I was miserable. I thought Bella had died and...that you had killed her." He paused, waiting for me to say something.

I shared with him my memory of my first glimpse of my mother. Of my father telling me _No, Renesmee,_ after I bit Mom. I remembered everything. I did not see my mother after her heart stopped beating, though. I had been taken away by my Aunt Rose.

In the dark, Jacob's body trembled only for a moment before he got himself back under control. "Yeah. So I went downstairs and there you were, with Rosalie. I hadn't seen your face, yet. I only knew you were there. I – I remember crossing the room to see you, so angry I almost phased. And then, Rosalie lifted you to her shoulder and you looked at me. I mean, really _looked_ at me. And..."

"And what?" I prompted softly, brushing his shoulder with my fingers. "What?"

"Now, you have to promise me not to get upset," he told me, turning his head to meet my eyes. "Promise?"

"Of course."

"You know I'm a werewolf. A shapeshifter. You know that that comes with a lot of add-ons, right? Like the hearing and the sense of smell and the speed and all of that."

"Right. And...?"

"Not everything is that cool. Some of the add-ons are weirder. For me, for some of my friends, too, one of them is what happened to me when I first looked in your eyes."

"What?" I had no idea and was fascinated, but also my heart was getting ready to ache because this was clearly so hard for my Jacob to tell me, and he had been hurting so much already, because of his dad. "I won't be creeped out. I'll still love you."

He brought his free arm across his body to trace the outline of my face, push a stray lock of hair behind my ear and brush his thumb over my lips. "Thing is, honey, I Imprinted. On you. Right then and right there."

I held very still. "Imprinted? Like...ducks?"

His laugh was short and humorless. "Not exactly. It's involuntary, like that, but for us – my brothers and me – it's like nothing and no one matters so much any more except for the girl we Imprint on. Mostly, it's something that happens when the girls are, well, older, I guess." He cleared his throat. "You know, older teens, adult, that kind of thing."

"But not for you. Or... Or for Quil?" I hazarded a guess.

His intake of breath confirmed that one. "Yeah. When the girl is younger, like you and like Claire, Imprinting has nothing to do with, well, with all of this," he said awkwardly, gesturing between our two bodies. "It's just that I loved you and wanted you to be happy and safe above anything else. I would do anything for you, be anyone for you that you needed. And nothing else made me happier," he added urgently. "_Nothing_. You have been, since that happened, like the sun in the sky for me, Nessie. _Know that_."

I flopped to my back, staring at the ceiling, thousands of memories playing in my mind. I could see all that he had done and been for me, over the years. Remembered _seeing_ him that first time... Remembered his obvious happiness to be with me, the consistency of his companionship. There were no false notes, here. It was genuine.

But –

"You had no choice?" I asked, hating the edge to my voice. "So this..." I mimicked his earlier gesture. "This too? No choice?" I was appalled at the tears that streamed suddenly from my eyes to drip in my hair. Appalled because I didn't know why I was crying. For _him_? For being unwillingly attached to me and my happiness? What kind of life was that? For _myself_? Because the love I knew I had from him – and I didn't doubt it, not for a minute – was not freely given and hadn't, really, even been deserved?

Sobs shook me and I rolled away from him, curling up in a ball as far from him on that big bed as I could go. I felt he had been stuck with me for years. He never asked for this. He hadn't even _liked_ me. Probably _hated_ me for hurting his best friend, my mom. And then to have all choices taken from him and to be _compelled_ because of who and what he was _to love me_. Love me beyond reason, really. Beyond sense. Because it was _not_ reasonable. It was other-worldly. It was myth and legend and fairy tales.

"Nessie, honey." I heard the bed creak as he scooted over to wrap me up in his arms. "Don't cry. Please, don't cry. I do love you. It's real and it's forever."

"I know," I rasped between sobs, "but you didn't want to!"

"It wasn't what I had planned on," he admitted in the dark, his voice low and husky over my ear. "But Nessie, I know you better than anyone. And I am sure I would love you anyway, if I had met you last year at a stupid Dartmouth frat party or something. You are the best thing to ever happen to me, weird wolf stuff notwithstanding. You're the _best_," he repeated, shaking me a little. "That is one thing with the Imprint," he said, and he was smiling. "It doesn't happen unless it's perfect."

My sobs quieted and I tried to think. "My family knows." It wasn't a question.

"Yep. It wasn't something I could really keep to myself," he said with an embarrassed chuckle. "We just didn't tell you because you had to be able to make your own choice."

"I had a choice?"

He turned me in his arms then, so I had to look him in the eye. "Yes. And you still do. I love you. I always will. But if you had not chosen to love me, too, then it wouldn't have ever been more than what it was before, well, before you, um, slipped on the way to Houston a few months ago. I would have gone on being your best friend and big brother and whatever you needed for as long as we were both breathing air."

"Even if I had chosen someone else?"

His nod was solemn. "Yes. And it would have been totally okay if that had been the way it went, too." We just stared at each other for who knew how many minutes, in the middle of the big bed, our arms somehow around each other. "But see, I've been promising myself to you since you were born," Jacob went on, trying to infuse a lighter note in the conversation. "All those circles..."

Stunned, I blinked. "You mean..." I rubbed the ring on my finger and marveled at the implications for a moment. "And all this time..."

"I've loved you."

"And I've loved you, too."

I felt his whole body relax as he seemed to sink deeper into the mattress. "That has been weighing on me for months. Talking with your dad about it, trying to figure out what to tell you, hoping you wouldn't go screaming for the nearest exit..."

In spite of my still-wet face, I had to laugh a little. "I wish I could have caught those conversations."

"They were funny."

"I bet."

His chest moved under me and I heard him yawn. "Nessie, honey, I hate to do this to you..."

"Especially seeing as how we're thousands of miles away from home," I sighed.

"Yeah. But..." The playful notes were in his voice again. "I'll make it up to you, okay?"

"I'll hold you to that."

"Counting on it."

As I had done so many times before in our life together, I curled up in his arms and fell asleep to the sound of his breathing.

**~*~**

**A/N 2: Nessie really is secure in Jacob's love for her, so she isn't going to have a delayed stress reaction to this and run off to find Nahuel. I promise. But the revelation does unsettle her. Still, she loves the guy and for her, that is the first and best truth.**

**Coming in Chapter 13:**

Billy sat up again, seeming to pull himself up on invisible rails. "Jacob," he hissed, ignoring her entirely. "No!"

I could feel my body shake in fury before I realized it. Nessie pressed subtly into me, though, and stroked my forearms. I was reminded to control myself. Again. "Yes."

"How can _she_ possibly make stronger wolves?" he continued, still in that half-hissing sound that I found infuriating. "How? She's one of _them_!"


	13. Jacob: How can he kick her?

**A/N: Double dip Friday! Or something.... Enjoy! ~LJ**

_**13. Jacob**_

How can he kick her when HE'S down?

Paul met us at Sea-Tac, and I knew him immediately. We didn't age, my brothers and I. Not while we were still phasing wolf regularly. He was still shorter than I was, still skinny and wiry, and still had that obnoxious laugh that I wondered how my sister put up with.

"Jake!" he called. "Nessie!"

I smiled at him, eager to see my brother-in-law in spite of myself. Glancing down at Nessie, I lifted her left hand to my lips and asked, "Well? Ready?"

"He knows me?"

"_Everyone_ knows you, honey." I remembered telling Sam's pack about her. I remembered the shock, the strange shift in the pack's mindset regarding her. "You, singlehandedly, prevented a war," I told her. "Didn't know that, did you?"

She blinked, looking a little dazed as we reached Paul on the other side of the security checkpoint. "Glad I was here," was all she said.

"Let's get your luggage," Paul said, shaking my hand and leaning forward to kiss Nessie on the cheek. "It's good that you're here. Both of you," he went on. "Billy's been waiting for you, Jake."

"How's he doing today?"

I kept Nessie's hand in mine the entire time we were at the airport and all the way to Paul's car. She sat in the back of the mud-spattered SUV as we drove to the rez. Every time I looked back at her, she had her eyes turned out the window, drinking in the wet winter landscape of the Olympic Peninsula.

"It's not going to be a problem, having her visit, right?" I asked Paul as we reached La Push.

"Nope. The pack knows you're coming. She's got a pass," he assured me, tossing a friendly smile to Nessie through the rearview mirror. "Quil's looking forward to seeing her, actually."

My worry about Billy was never far from the surface. When we reached his house – my old house – I inhaled sharply. "Nessie, we're here," I told her, steeling my guts to see my father. Disabled for years, he had always been a strong man, in my eyes. Strong and wise and vivid. I had no idea how that had changed since last I saw him, but my mind expected the worst.

And I wondered what he would say to my Nessie. My fiancée.

I wondered what she would say, too. The reservation was not a high-class neighborhood, and Nessie Cullen had never spent a day of her life away from the luxury her family had provided for her. Not until this trip, anyway.

Paul stopped the car in front of the house and went for our luggage, in the back, while I opened Nessie's door – child safety locks kept her from opening it herself – and helped her out into the perpetual sprinkling mist that characterized winter, here, catching the unique and beloved scent of her as she seemed to try to melt into my side. I remembered waking up with that scent in my nose this morning, waking up to the heat of her body covering mine, the smooth skin of her leg over my waist and her breath feathering over my chest. My desire for her had been almost painfully acute.

_Had been?_ Who was I kidding? I don't know where my restraint had come from, last night. Don't know where it came from that morning, either. Maybe it was just old-fashioned morals. I lived with _vampires_, for Pete's sake, but they were vampires who had almost all been born _before_ World War I. "Old-fashioned" was kind of the watchword, I guessed.

I shook the fantasies away for now, knowing there would likely be time to indulge them. Later.

Paul looked about to kick open the door to the house when it opened in front of him. "Jake!" my sister called, her voice warm and relieved. "You made it!" At first, her eyes widened as she took me in – it had been a while – and then her gaze flickered to Nessie and she stiffened.

"Rachel, it's good to see you," I said, keeping Nessie's hand in mine and extending my other one to my sister. "Really. You look great. The whole domestic thing agrees with you."

She sniffed and continued to stare at Nessie. "Thanks, Jake. I didn't know you were bringing company."

Nessie flinched and I pulled her more closely against myself. "Rachel. This is my fiancée, Renesmee Cullen." I glanced into Nessie's eyes with a rueful smile. "Of course, I usually call her Nessie."

Nessie had been taught by the best. She moved away from the shelter of my arm and stepped to greet Rachel. "Hello," she said, her voice still that silky alto I loved even after her growth spurt. "I don't think we met, when I lived here before. It is a pleasure to meet you. Sorry to impose; I didn't realize Jacob hadn't said I'd be here. But then," she smiled up at me, "it was kind of last minute, including me. I am sorry. If it's an inconvenience, I can probably stay with my grandfather, in Forks."

I glared at Rachel. She was impassive. "Not at all, Nessie," my sister said after a couple of heartbeats. "We've added some extra space, so it won't be a problem at all."

"Thank you so much," Nessie said, still using a polite company-manners sort of voice. "You're very kind."

"All right," I said, edgier now, "when can I see Billy? Is he here?"

Paul and Rachel exchanged looks. Rachel said, "I'll take you to see him. Paul will get your things to your room." She grimaced for a moment. "The kids are at Emily's right now."

Nessie squeezed my hand. "See you later." Paul managed to carry both our suitcases and led her through a door I never saw before.

I watched her go and blew out a breath. "What's your problem, Rachel?"

"She's a _Cullen_," my sister whispered.

"A _Cullen_ with hearing as good as mine," I informed her. "C'mon, you know the situation."

Her dark eyes resentful, she stood straight and tall. "I do. Sam said she was welcome, so I guess she is. Let's go see Dad."

His room still felt cramped to me. Propped up on three pillows, Billy was pale, his eyes closed under bushy gray brows. His wheelchair was out of sight. "Hey, Dad," I called softly.

"Dad, Jake's here," Rachel said at the same time. Her long hair was tied back in a ponytail that whipped around when she left me alone with our father.

Billy opened his eyes, looking to be relieved to see me. "Jacob... My son... Come here, boy." I knelt on the floor next to his bed and was eye-level with him. He smelled like crackers and mouthwash. "So you made it, huh?"

"Yep. Sorry. I was s'posed to be here yesterday. Got stuck in a freak freeze in Dallas."

"I heard. S'okay, Jacob. Just glad you made it." His whisper had none of its old strength. Neither did his hands, as he clapped my shoulder. "Good to see you, son. Been too long." He sucked down air. I could hear his heart stuttering in his chest.

Pain sliced through me. "I know. I'll try to do better, now that Nessie's older," I told him.

His brows slanted in disapproval. "Still, huh? Didn't wear off?"

"You know better than that, Dad. Is there anything I can get for you? Anything you need?"

"A new heart, maybe?" He coughed something that might have been a laugh.

"Sure, sure," I said, lapsing into my older speech patterns. "Right after we fix your legs, Dad."

"Ha!"

He told me about the latest news and gossip on the reservation. Town stuff, too. How the pack's numbers had gone down, lately. Kids born. People moving. People going to college.

"How'd that work out for you?" he rasped.

"Did okay. Workin' on a Bachelors now."

"Hmph. Those Cullens paying for it, I guess?"

"I work for 'em, Dad." Then, I inhaled a little. "I wanted you to see Nessie."

"She here?"

I nodded. "I couldn't – couldn't be away from her, Dad. You know how it is. I mean, Paul's here with you, right?"

"Where he belongs."

Anger surged in my chest, resentment flowed to my arms. I pushed them down. "Stop it. You know there'd be no room if I were here, too. And where would I put Nessie?"

Pushing himself a little off his pillows, he leaned toward me. "Enough, boy. Enough. She's here, you said. So fine. Yes. I'll see her. But don't expect me to like it."

He collapsed again on his back, breathing with rapid, shallow inhalations. I didn't answer, but stayed with him to make sure he was going to recover from his mini-rant. "I'll go get her." I didn't trust myself to say anymore. Everyone – mostly – loved Nessie when they met her. Rachel and Billy would come around.

They had to.

Stepping out of his room, I stood in some confusion in the kitchen. "Where is everything?"

"Jake! Yeah, man, we did some serious remodeling. Rachel said she was not going to try to bring up two kids in this place without extra space, and I totally understood." He chuckled in his annoying way and I remembered how I broke his nose once. Not again. Rachel was ticked enough at me. "So c'mon, I'll show you your room." His face darkened with some kind of awkward embarrassment. "I didn't know what to do with Nessie, though, y'know? I mean..." He made some iffy gesture with his hands as if he didn't know how to say what needed saying. "Do you guys need separate rooms or anything? Rachel will flip, either way, so ..."

And he would do anything to make her happy, even if _nothing_ would make her happy. I knew that. "Nessie can stay with me. Do you guys still have an air mattress or should I go buy her one?"

He nodded with clear decision. "Gotcha. Yeah. We got one. Okay. So, let me show you where you'll be." We went through that unfamiliar door and I found it led to a small sort of playroom, where there were a lot of Fisher-Price toys scattered along the perimeter. Off of this room was an open door, where I saw a bunk bed and a dresser, and another door that was closed. There was also a hall that led to another bedroom. The door was open, and I saw my sister's ponytail swinging and heard her on the phone. She was talking to Emily. "Nessie's in there," Paul said, pointing to the closed door. "It's the guest room. There's a bath, too, right there," he went on, pointing behind the door he had opened. Ah, I got it now. My old bedroom had been converted to a bath. Made sense; it had been a tiny room. "You'll share with the kids, okay?"

"No problem. Thanks, Paul. Looks great. Must've taken a lot of work."

"Oh yeah, but you know... Makes her happy, yeah?"

I nodded. "I totally know, yeah."

"So... Does she know, and everything?"

"About...?" I wasn't going to offer him any freebies.

"The pack and all that? And the Imprinting and stuff? And hey, I thought she was a lot younger."

I rumpled my hair. "Yeah. Well. She had a growth spurt. I'll tell you about it. Later."

The door opened then and Nessie peeked out, her hair brushed and eyes alert. She had changed into a pair of dark denims and a long-sleeved cream sweater with an emblem of a wolf on the front over her left breast. "That's my girl," I murmured.

She smiled and came to take my hand. "Everything okay? Did you see your dad?"

"Yep, and he wants to see you," I told her. I withheld my opinions – and Billy's – so that she could see him without any further prejudice. Poor girl had probably had enough on her mind already.

Paul grinned at her. "Nice sweater, Nessie! Surprised to see it, though on a –"

I elbowed him hard and scowled. _Nice one, jerk_, I thought.

Nessie just took a deep breath and smiled crookedly at my brother-in-law. "Surprised to see it on a vampire?" she finished for him.

"Honey, he didn't mean –"

"Yes he did, but that's okay. I didn't just buy this with my eyes closed, you know." She grinned up at me, mischief dancing with beautiful abandon in her eyes. "You just know my aunts were _thrilled_ at my choice."

I threw my head back and laughed. "I bet!" I dropped a kiss on the top of her head while Paul just chuckled. "C'mon. Let's go see Billy."

Paul caught my arm briefly. "I'm going to go tell Sam you're here."

"Okay, thanks." Not that I was thrilled by the prospect, but it would be good to touch base again with the leader of the pack. He'd stepped into a role he shouldn't have had to take, but I hadn't, so he had. And he'd done a damn fine job, too.

In Billy's room, Nessie went no farther than the foot of his bed, as if sensing that Billy was not especially pleased to see her. "Dad, this is my Nessie," I told him. "We just got engaged yesterday," I went on, watching his eyes as she lifted her hand to show him the ring. I knew what he would see: Vampire-pale skin, Bella's eyes, Edward's hair, and the incredible body of a twenty-year old woman. And the traditional ring of the Quileute people.

His eyes widened perceptibly and his whole body started to shake, rattling even the sadly flimsy frame of the bed. "But - But. No. No, it can't be. No. There's a mistake, Jacob. No. It's an abomination!"

My first instinct was to shield Nessie from his temper. I moved to her side and took her in my arms. "No, it's not, Dad. Ask Sam," I said, knowing that Sam Uley's opinion weighed heavily with my father. "Ask any of the guys. They'll tell you it's for real. Do _not_ call her – that – again."

Nessie's heart thundered in her chest; I could hear it _and_ feel it. "Mr. Black," she said after a moment, her voice more human than not, which was nothing I'd thought of before now, "I'm pleased to meet you," she told him. My father looked daggers at her, but she seemed completely unaware of that. "Jacob has spoken of you for years, and always with great respect. I've wanted to meet you my whole life."

"Your whole life," Billy all but spat, his weakness seemingly forgotten in the flare of color in his cheeks. "I _know_ how old you are, girl."

"Six," she told him in a voice completely clear. "But my ID says eighteen."

Not sure what she was up to, I still had to smile a little. "Her ID also says her name's Vanessa."

"Vanessa _Wolfe_," she reminded me with happy emphasis.

Billy sat up again, seeming to pull himself up on invisible rails. "Jacob," he hissed, ignoring her entirely. "No!"

I could feel my body shake in fury before I realized it. Nessie pressed subtly into me, though, and stroked my forearms. I was reminded to control myself. Again. "Yes."

"How can _she_ possibly make stronger _wolves_?" he continued, still in that half-hissing sound that I found infuriating. "How? She's one of _them_!"

"Make stronger wolves....?" Nessie inquired, lips pursed.

I clutched her closer. "Yeah. It's a theory of his."

"I'm half-human," she told my father, determined to be seen even if he didn't wish to see her, I guessed. "And I'm strong. Not as strong as my Jacob," she went on, reverting to her younger reference for me, "but strong enough." She tossed her head a little and stared Billy down. "You should not be angry with Jacob. He – he never asked for this." Her voice cracked a little in this last statement and the sound wrenched my heart.

The sound seemed to touch Billy, too. His color eased, his brows unfurrowed and he leaned back in his pillows. "Well now, that's true enough," he murmured, sounding as if he were speaking to himself. "Hmph."

I did not return to Billy's side. I stayed by Nessie's and tried to keep calm. "Look. I didn't come here to agitate you, Dad. I came because I love you. Because I love you, I'm going to forget what you were just saying to Nessie. And I'm going to go out and introduce her to the others. You can decide if we can stay here or not tonight, but right now, we're taking a break." With Nessie securely in my arm, I left his room, fuming under my skin. Rachel hadn't reappeared, and Paul might still be outside for all I knew.

"You okay to just take a walk?" I asked Nessie, my teeth grinding together.

Her answer was a barely whispered affirmative so I swept us out the front door and into the lightly drizzling rain. Before we had gone six feet, I turned and caught her up in my arms. "I have never been more proud of anyone in my whole life," I murmured against her lips before claiming them with my own. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, her fingers gripping my neck, and kissed me back, as if she had something to prove, something she had to show me.

That wasn't like her, so I pulled away a little, holding her as if she were a little girl against me. "What is it?"

And then I saw: Her eyes were filling, her lips trembling and her breathing was rough and forced. "I'm sorry..." Her voice broke and I would have shushed her but she shook her head before laying it on my shoulder and shaking with silent weeping.

I hated it that I'd made her cry the night before. I hated it worse that my dad made her cry today. _Hated_ it. "You're the last person who needs to apologize for anything," I snapped, my anger spilling over in the only safe way I had. "We don't have to stay here, we can find a motel in town or something, honey. Really. I won't have you treated like that."

Her head shot up, almost clipping my jaw, and a curl got stuck in her wet eyelashes. She pulled it away. "I'm not a coward. I'll stay unless they kick me out. If I'm going to be your wife," she told me, the depths of her chocolate eyes clear and assured, "they're going to have to get used to me, right? And what is it with _strong wolves_, anyway?"

"There's no _if_ about it, Nessie Cullen. You're mine and I'm yours. And you're right; they have to get used to it."

"Strong wolves...?" she persisted, angling her brows at me and looking too much like her father.

I laughed a little at the expression on her face. "I told you it's a theory."

"Do my parents know about this theory?"

I nodded. "Edward calls it improving the bloodlines." She blushed noticeably. I took it one further, my lips right at her ear so that I could speak quietly enough not to be overheard even if Sam Uley were just behind me. "And... I have permission."

Her breath came fast as she nudged my face back a little so that I could see her eyes glow and her skin heat again. She didn't say a thing, but touched her forehead to mine and replayed last night with a _when_-question spiking through the entire, steamy rerun.

By the time Sam, Quil and Embry emerged at the edge of the cleared yard, _I_ was the one who was blushing.

**~*~**

**Excerpt from Chapter 14:**

Suddenly, I had an image of my father and my fiancé as allied rulers, meeting over a stone table to confer about a common enemy. They spoke in short sentences without elaboration. Clearly, their relationship was more developed than I had previously understood. I felt, for a moment, really out of it and dreadfully naïve. Like I had completely skipped chapters in a history book or something. _My_ history book.


	14. Nessie: I'm surrounded by stories

**A/N: We're now in La Push, for the record. The rest of the story takes place in La Push and Forks. And, to answer someone's question, No, no bloodlines were enhanced in the hotel room. ;-) They just fell asleep together. JUST SLEEP. Honest. Even Edward wouldn't have objected. ;-) **

**Thank you, again, for reading and letting me know what you're thinking. And hello to new readers! *waves* ~LJ**

_**14. Nessie**_

I'm surrounded by stories and they're not always good ones.

Meeting Quil was one of the things I most looked forward to, on our trip up here. Right after meeting Jacob's father, that is. That last meeting didn't go too well, but I knew when I saw Quil's open smile and heard my name as a happy sound from his throat that it would be okay. He didn't just shake hands, either. He grabbed me and gave me a big, swinging hug as if we were the oldest and best of friends. "Nessie! Wow! Look at you!"

"I know," I said, laughing at him. "Look at you, too. Wow, the webcam does add ten pounds, after all! Where's Claire? Will I get to see her or am I too scary?"

"You? Ha! He's the scary one," Quil joked, winking at Jacob. "Claire used to be terrified of him."

Jacob was shaking hands with the other two who had joined us. "Nessie Cullen, this is Sam Uley and Embry Call." In spite of the wet, cold December air, all three of these men were only wearing jeans. Barefoot and bare-chested, they appeared completely comfortable.

"Did you run, then?" I inquired after greeting them in a more restrained way than I had Quil.

Embry appeared disconcerted, but Sam nodded. "Fastest way to get here from anywhere in our territory. Good to see you, Nessie Cullen. You are older than we expected to see."

I exchanged glances with Jacob. "Yeah, well. That's my fault, I guess," I murmured. "I broke my arm and it triggered my last growth spurt or something." I sighed and looked up to Jacob, placing a quick hand on his cheek and imaging the notion of every single person telling me I looked older than they thought I would with the question accent on it. It took barely two seconds.

He chuckled and gripped my hand in his. "Yeah, probably."

Sam eyed me curiously, Embry cautiously. Quil, though, was all excited. "Oh, wow. I know about that. Way cool way of putting it out there, Nessie. What'd she say?" he asked Jacob.

Jacob sighed, sounding resigned, and told them. I blushed again.

Then, Sam nodded slowly, his face serene and wise-looking. "I'll make sure you are not bothered by that question, Nessie. It isn't fair, you're right. But I am going to ask, because then they'll all know not to. How old are you now?"

I wanted to roll my eyes, but there was something about Sam that made that seem rude to do. "Six. Everyone thought I'd be all grown up at seven, but when I broke my arm..."

"I understand. Sudden growth happens for us, too." His face relaxed into a smile. "Jacob, here, was the worst."

I grinned. "Oh yeah? I only know him as he is now. Anyone have pictures?"

"No!" Jacob protested, laughing and shaking his head. "No pictures. Stop it. Sam. I was catching up with Billy. Any other news?"

"You guys gonna talk wolf or what?" Quil called. To me, he said, "If they are, wanna tour La Push? We can run, if you want to run. Human, not wolf. Then I can show you around, run you by to see Claire, and like that."

"I'd love to meet Claire," I began slowly, looking to see what Jacob thought about it.

He and Quil nodded at one another and then Jacob said, "If you get lost, honey, just howl, okay? I'll hear you."

"Lost? With me? I'm not the one who's been gone for years," Quil reminded him with a snort.

Jacob's smile went feral and I shivered – in a good way. "I can track her anywhere."

"Might take you up on that one, Jake."

I laughed. "Hey! I'm not a game, guys! I just want to see Jacob's home, 'kay?"

They both chuckled and I wiped my forehead in exaggerated relief. "All right. I guess I can run with you if you stay human. Let's go."

"Great!" Quil winked at Jacob and took off at a slow run. I, of course, kept up with him and he soon sped up so that we were through the trees in practically no time. The land was not the cleared and even sort of place I was used to, even in the Amazonian rain forest. My family did things...differently. Here, poverty was visible, not just read about. I was saddened at its indicators. Life on a Native American Reservation was not something I had any experience with personally, but I had done research when I was younger, just because I knew my Jacob had grown up on one. I learned... a lot. More than I ever told him.

So I eyed the low-slung houses, the smoke from chimneys, the children running around in ragged pants and sweaters. I bit back questions, choosing to learn with my own eyes instead, right now. Along with the evidences of the quality of life, though, I also saw a lot of natural romance. Shadowed walks, groves of trees with mists hanging about them like ghost-friends. Children laughing and playing together without fear. I had never had real playmates my own age, so I was rather envious of them. I was six years old, in my mortal calendar. Younger than some of the kids I saw now. I had never really played tag with anyone...

I smelled grilling meat, melting cheeses, and butter. Lots of butter. I saw beat-up cars parked in front of houses, but there were friends hanging out together on these cars. Friends and family, sharing beverages and meals.

My heart ached with something I think was homesickness, though I had never been here in my life. Not really. I had lived about fifteen miles from here, cared for and sheltered and introduced only to a few select people who could be trusted with the truths of my life or the lies we offered in their places.

Something here made me want to stay. And I didn't know what to do about that.

Quil brought me to a brightly lit house with shells that lined a stone-paved walk. I wasn't nearly as fast as he, and I was running kind of hard, by that time, my mind busy and my body breathing heavily. Clouds of my breath puffed out in huge, misty gusts as he knocked on the door.

"Hey, Claire? It's me!"

"Quil! Hi!" The voice was a high, laughing one and the weathered door opened to a girl with eyes to match. She had ponytails on either side of her dusky face, deep dimples and was a little on the sturdy side. Quil did not immediately pick her up and spin her around, as Jacob had done me for my whole life, but he did hold his hand up for a high-five and she held hers down for a low-five and that was, apparently, their greeting. I liked it.

Then, Claire looked past Quil to see me and she immediately clutched at Quil. I could see what Jacob meant by the be anything/be anyone thing. I had the feeling that, like with Jacob and me, she was his number one priority.

Claire cocked her head a little as her smile slid off her face. "Is that Nessie?" she whispered loudly.

I smiled and whispered back. "Yep."

"You're Jacob's girl."

"You're Quil's girl."

"Yes. You're bigger than I thought."

"You're bigger than I thought, too."

Claire studied me another few moments before her smile returned. "Okay! Did Quil bring you by to see me? Did he tell you about what he got me for Christmas?" She left the shelter of Quil's body and bounced toward me, beaming now, and all ready to tell me all about her school vacation.

Quil whispered, "You don't have to hang out, you know, if you don't want to."

I said back, equally inaudibly to the human ears nearby, "No, I want to. Good company. She's older than I am, remember."

His chuckle was low as he tugged one of Claire's ponytails and followed her into the house.

I got a chance to sit cross-legged on a woven floor rug in Claire's bedroom and be introduced to her dolls and stuffed animals. She showed me her rock collection, proving knowledgeable about the different types of rocks to be found in La Push. I made a note to find rocks and send them to her, whenever I was able to do so.

Quil joined us, apparently happy to fetch and carry and nod as if this was the first time he had heard Claire's lecture on rocks. I smiled a lot, more in memory of how Jacob had been so patient with me when I was little than over her lecture. I remembered Jacob hunting with me and making bets with me and tossing me up into the sky, over and over, never tiring. It was precious to see Quil and Claire having that kind of relationship.

Quil hadn't asked for this either, but he was a happy guy. This observation eased some of the guilt that clung to my heart.

A knock sounded on the door and I heard Claire's mom answer it. "Hi, I'm Jacob Black and I was looking for Quil and Nessie?"

"Jacob!" I called, springing to my feet without disturbing the rock collection. "Back here!"

Claire seemed to freeze and I remembered that Quil said that Jacob had been scary to her. I thought he was joking. He wasn't, exactly. When Jacob's huge – and now shirtless and shoeless – frame more than filled the door to her bedroom, Claire slipped to Quil's lap and wrapped his arms around her like a seatbelt.

I took Jacob's hand. "This is Claire, Jacob. She was just showing me her rock collection."

"Claire, hey, good to see you. Last time I saw you, you were collecting rocks too. Or making Quil do it for you."

Claire cocked her head at him and slowly rose to her feet. "You're bigger than I thought you were, too," she told my fiancé.

He grinned at her. "Seems to be going around."

"Do you want to see my rock collection?"

Quil pushed himself up and suddenly, Claire's room was overwhelmingly full of Quileute male. I edged toward the door. Quil tugged on Claire's hair again. "How about next week?" he suggested. "They just flew in from Texas and Brazil."

"Wow. Okay. Next week is good."

"Quil? I was wondering if I could snag a blanket."

Quil's eyes lit up with humor. "Oh? Um, yeah, I could probably borrow one."

"Jacob can have the one in my closet, if Nessie holds on to it for me," Claire volunteered. "It's cold out there and you don't have coats!" the girl reminded us, pointing to the closet and frowning imperiously. "You can bring it back when you come back to see my rocks."

After a few more minutes, we left Quil with Claire and her family and Jacob took me out into the settling dusk. It was cool, but it didn't really affect me overmuch. My thin sweater was more than sufficient to keep me warm when Jacob took my hand and led the way back to the dark and mysterious-seeming forest. I kept Claire's woolen blanket over my shoulder, wondering why Jacob had wanted it.

"Good visit?" he asked me.

"Very, thank you. Quil... Quil is really _happy_."

Maybe he heard the note of relieved incredulity in my voice because he stopped under the shadows of a dripping evergreen and pulled me close to him. "_I'm_ really happy, too."

"I know... And I'll keep reminding myself you are, I promise."

"Tomorrow night," he said with a subject change, "there's going to be a bonfire. Kind of a Happy New Year and Welcome Home thing."

"Am I – Will I be welcome?" I asked, leaning back to study his shaggy-browed face. "I don't want to cause any more problems for you."

The brows angled. "Right now, the only conflict is with Billy and Rachel. Everyone else is just kind of getting over the shock."

"Shock?"

"That I'm getting married," he reminded me, his voice husky and intimate.

I laughed lightly. "I should probably tell my family, too..."

"Later?" he suggested. "I was kind of hoping..."

"What?"

"That we could go hunting."

Maybe it was roughened edge in his voice, maybe it was the way he pressed my body to his, I don't know... But I didn't have to be a mind-reader like my dad to know what he was thinking. "Hungry?" I teased him.

"Oh...yeah." He kissed me, his breath hot in my mouth, his hands hot at the small of my back under my sweater and I knew that he wasn't the only one. "Close your eyes," he instructed after a few moments.

Laughing, I did so and I even turned my back, listening to him divest himself of his jeans and strap them to his ankle. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Me either. I was joking," he said. But then, I heard the subtle but powerful sound of him phasing and turned back to see him settling on all fours, his eyes – still the same, always the same – laughing at me in the dark russet fur of his face. He chuffed at me and I pressed my hands to either side of his muzzle, sharing with him a few of the hundreds of memories I had of our hunting together, from when I was little and we hunted not far from where we were now, when he helped me find prey and watched while I took it down. I was such a brat, and he put up with me anyway.

When I finished, he tucked his nose in the hollow of my throat and I wondered, for just a moment, what that would look like to someone else... Someone who didn't know that the legends and magic were real. But then, it didn't matter anymore. It only mattered that my Jacob knelt for me to climb on his back in my usual place before he rose carefully and took off on a run.

Running! He ran us far from the homes that dotted the reservation, far into the forest, into the green, mysteriously misted places of my childhood. I didn't know exactly where he was taking me at first, but as I began to recognize some landmarks – boulders and rivers and other rarely-changed features, I knew we were heading home. My birthplace.

The trees flew by, but I could see and catalog them anyway; they were a part of me, too. We eventually reached wherever he was wanting us to go, because he halted in a clearing that was just perfect. Clouds diffused the rising light of the moon, making it almost a haven for the supernatural, ringed by trees. The cold did not affect the evergreens, only making them more majestic.

I slid from his back without a word and spread out the blanket as he phased back to human. It seemed ridiculous, maybe, but I was completely shy and couldn't look at him, even though I wanted to and, apparently "had permission" to do so. I could only stare at the moonlit blanket. Until his hands took mine before blazing trails up my arms, over my shoulders and into my hair.

There were no words, just senses. Scent and taste and touch and sound for who knew how long. I wasn't keeping track. All I did know is that when my cell phone buzzed in the pocket of my jeans, those jeans were still on my hips and I was really, really annoyed that Jacob had to move for me to answer it.

He made me. "Probably your folks," he rasped in my ear.

"So?"

"They might be worried."

"Don't suppose Dad can read minds this far away, do you?" I mused, still irritated but then giggling as Jacob nuzzled my throat while I tried to answer the phone. My head was spinning; it took real effort to be polite. And coherent.

I adjusted a fold of fabric from the blanket – and tried. "Hello, Dad?"

"Nessie! Good. We hadn't heard from you since last night and wanted to make sure you made it in."

I knew that Jacob heard every word. I could feel his smile against the my collarbone. "Yes! Sorry, it's been a real busy day. Sorry, Dad. I was meeting Billy and all of Jacob's family and everyone," I babbled. Concentrating. Hard. As huge hands feathered lightly over my ribs.

"How's Billy doing?" Dad's voice was concerned and I winced internally, because I hadn't given much thought to Jacob's dad since Jacob himself agreed that he was "hungry."

"Seemed very spirited this afternoon," I managed. "How's everyone?"

He updated me on everyone's projects over the past couple of days while Jacob – determined, evidently, to make me squeak or gasp or do something to embarrass myself while talking to my dad – sent his lips trailing the path of his fingers. I swallowed hard and knotted my free hand in Jacob's hair, trying to keep his head still.

Dad's tone went all serious, all of a sudden. "Listen, sweetheart. We've had a visitor, and I was a little concerned."

I stilled; so did Jacob, moving up to rest on one elbow, his face completely stern. "Who, Dad?"

"Apparently, Nahuel's... Nahuel's father."

A chill enveloped me and I sat up, leaning instinctively into Jacob's body. "Who?"

"He said he'd met you? You never told me."

"I don't remember meeting him."

"He said he had seen you in the courtyard practicing kendo."

"Oh..." I _did_ remember him. Joham. The vampire with the strange gift for promoting intimacy. I told Dad what had happened. Jacob's arms tightened about me, a low growl in his throat.

Dad heard him. "Jacob's there, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. Listen, sweetheart. We talked to Joham and told him that you were not going to be marrying his son, that you had accepted Jacob. I am guessing that was more than just a cover story, right?"

I laughed, in spite of the nebulously-based worry in my middle. "Um, yeah. He proposed and everything, Dad." I smiled and turned to brush my lips against Jacob's shoulder. "I don't think Billy's too happy about that."

"He's not the only one."

"Dad!"

"Oh, no, Nessie. We all have been rather expecting it. Believe me, everyone will be pleased and even _relieved_, here. It's Nahuel and Joham that I'm worried about."

I chilled again. "Oh?"

"Just – Wait. Can you put Jacob on the phone?"

I handed my cell to Jacob; it practically disappeared in his hand. "Edward. What's the problem?"

Suddenly, I had an image of my father and my fiancé as allied rulers, meeting over a stone table to confer about a common enemy. They spoke in short sentences without elaboration. Clearly, their relationship was more developed than I had previously understood. I felt, for a moment, really out of it and dreadfully naïve. Like I had completely skipped chapters in a history book or something. _My_ history book.

Finally, Jacob handed my phone back to me, his lips clamped together and eyes brooding. I touched his face. Showed him the image of Joham in Brazil and the _What?_ accent.

He shook his head and I heard my dad call me through the tiny speaker of my phone at the same time. "Nessie?"

"Yeah, Dad." I was even less pleased to hear from him now than I had been. Now, I was a little frightened. Not to mention knowing that here had been another perfect opportunity to work on those _bloodlines_ that had been pushed away by the other realities of my life. It was so not fair.

"Nessie, listen. I've got Emmett and Jasper tracking both Joham and Nahuel. Stick close to Jacob and to the reservation. If they follow you," Dad went on, his voice hard and threatening. "We'll follow them."

We ended the call and I slid my phone slowly back into my jeans. Jacob's arms enfolded me in silence.

I guessed we had both lost our appetite, that evening. Finally, I inhaled a little raggedly. "Someday," I told him, "I want to hear the stories, Jacob. Not tonight. Maybe not for a few years, but I want to hear them."

"Someday, I'll tell you."

**~*~**

_Ack! Another lost opportunity to work on bloodlines! I know, I know..._

**Excerpt from Chapter 15:**

"This could be a problem." I studied her face, the anxiety between her brows, and tried to smooth it away. "Edward said that Joham was very serious about this _science_ idea. I remember Nahuel mentioning it, years ago. That his dad was trying to almost single-handedly begin breeding a new race or something."

"Sounds like science fiction," she murmured.


	15. Jacob: All in the family

**A/N: Thanks, again, for adding me to your alerts and favorites lists! :) How very kind of you! **

**Tonight (in the story) Jacob goes wolf and you'll get to see some more of the remaining pack. So for the wolf-girls, this might be your "thing."**

**Enjoy! ~LJ**

_**15. Jacob**_

All in the Family

Billy didn't raise a stink about Nessie staying with us – with me – that first night. Rachel was not overjoyed, but she and Paul had evidently discussed it and my sister didn't give me any more grief over anything as she served dinner. She mostly stayed out of our way, going to see Emily and get the kids while I spent a few minutes with Nessie.

Because we had to talk.

She sat in the middle of the blanketed, queen-sized bed that was in the guest room, her legs crossed, with her hands resting on her knees. I was on the floor next to the bed in front of her. I couldn't help but remember, seeing her now, how she had looked only an hour ago – the night's hazy light glancing faintly off her skin, the curves of her body pressed against the lines of mine. Couldn't help but remember how she felt, the scent of her, the joy that swam in her eyes.

Seemed like a week ago. Seemed like only a heartbeat had passed since then.

She touched my face, there in the room, and sent me wistful memories of her own, a sigh flowing gently from her mind to mine as she did. I kissed her palm and took her hands.

"This could be a problem." I studied her face, the anxiety between her brows, and tried to smooth it away. "Edward said that Joham was very serious about this _science_ idea. I remember Nahuel mentioning it, years ago. That his dad was trying to almost single-handedly begin breeding a new race or something."

"Sounds like science fiction," she murmured.

"Yeah. I know. But like werewolves and vampires," I tried to smile, "it's apparently really out there. Edward saw – saw what he wanted to do. Wait for you to come home and take you away for his son." Nessie shuddered and I reached up to pull her head down to mine for a brief, hard kiss. "I'm _not_ going to let that happen."

"I believe you."

"Why didn't you tell me you met this blood – this _person_, before?" I really wanted to know; it was totally disconcerting to find out something had happened in her life – something significant – that I didn't know about.

She shrugged and sat up straight. "He just seemed like a nomad. He has to be one, right? If he's Nahuel's father? Anyway, he made me uncomfortable, but he left and I didn't worry about it. I guess... I guess maybe I should have?"

"Yes! I can't believe you didn't tell me," I snapped, irritated. "Why _didn't_ you?"

"I don't know!" she said, slapping the bed with her hands. "It's over now. Right? I mean, what could anyone have done? Some wanderer shows up, says hello, admires the place and leaves. What the heck was I supposed to say? _Hey, Jacob, while you were sleeping some random vampire showed up to say hello?_ You would either have rolled your eyes at me and asked if a random _snake_ had shown up too, or you would've been reluctant to sleep for a week if I was outside anywhere."

Put like that, she did have a point. My irritation slid away and chagrin stepped in. "I guess I am a little protective. Sorry."

"I'm not sorry, so don't you apologize. I like it," she told me. "I do. I don't know what I'd do without you being protective, okay?" She eased down so that she was propped up on her elbow, looking at me and kicking her shoes off at the same time. "So. What are we going to do, now?"

"_I'm_ going to call Sam and see if he'll include me on a patrol schedule while we're here –" Her eyes narrowed as she bit her lip. I ran my finger down her nose and her expression relaxed. "And _you're_ going to try to get some sleep."

"Am I?"

I grinned. "Yeah. And tomorrow, we're going to see Charlie and Sue and maybe even Seth." Leah had resolved, she had told me when she left New Hampshire, to get as far away from Washington as she could. Maybe even Florida.

Nessie's face softened. "I've missed Seth. And it'll be good to see Grandpa Charlie." Then, she sighed. "He'll probably freak out to see me too. Like everyone."

"I'll be there. Don't worry." Charlie's "need to know" thing had likely been expanded a lot with Seth as a stepson. There was one more topic I wanted to talk about. I cleared my throat and her eyebrows rose into her forehead. "I had a thought, though, that might make this Joham thing go away."

"You make it sound almost easy."

I grinned. "Marry me."

She waved her left hand between us. "I said I would, remember?"

"I mean, marry me _soon_." Her eyes widened so that I could see the whites of them all around the deep brown irises. "Vegas, maybe? So that if either of those other guys finds us, you'll already be married and he can just go find someone else to work on his science project with, you know?"

"But, my family... And your family... I think it's a good idea, to get married, yes," she said haltingly, "but I – I'd want them to be there, you know? Is that... Is that stupid?"

My heart turned over. "No, honey. It's perfect. And you're right. It'd be better to have them here." I brushed her face with the backs of my fingers. "Soon?"

"Soon is good," she allowed, her lips tilting on one side.

"All right. I'll ask about the local options, then," I told her.

She covered my hand with hers. "I'm yours already, you know. I even have your last name. Sort of. Isn't there some kind of common-law thing? I've read about them..."

"Paperwork. Don't get me started, Nessie." I laughed a little and leaned in to brush my lips against her skin. "Or you _could_ go ahead and get me started, maybe," I suggested. Sam could wait...

A knock on the door interrupted that idea. "Jake? Sam wants to talk to you."

"Get some sleep, Ness," I murmured, rising to my feet. "I'll probably be late."

She sighed, smiled and said, "I'll try. You be safe, okay? I wish I could run with you."

My mind flooded with images and memories and I had to shake them out of my head. "I really don't want the pack to catch all of that," I muttered as I turned to the door. Damn, but now I was going to have to find other stuff to shove in my head. In about thirty seconds.

"I love you," she said as I opened the door.

"Me, too. Always."

Other stuff. Stuff like a kendo workout, carving promise rings, running patrol in the rainforest... Just in case I was able to do the thought-sharing thing with the others.

Once out of the house, I didn't phase right away. Didn't know if Sam and I could still communicate that way. But I found that he was in his wolf form, and so I phased likewise and we started running.

Apparently, I was still an Alpha male. The hollow power-feeling was still within me. And Sam was still the Alpha of his pack. But since we could communicate with some form of telepathy, this worked out while we ran to one of the usual meeting places for the pack.

_We might have a problem_, I told him as we ran. _Vampire problem._

_Are the Cullens returning so soon? We had thought they'd stay away for a couple of generations, at least. _

_No. One of them is a stranger here, the other was here when the Volturi thought we were guard dogs._ I chuffed a chuckle. That had been a day. _ I want to ask your permission to help with the patrols._

He leapt over a boulder and landed in a clearing, where he stopped and studied me, wolf-fashion. _There can be only one Alpha in a pack, Jacob. _

_I know. I don't want to dispute that, I just want to make sure I know what's going on. I have to keep Nessie safe._

_Of course. You are our brother still, Jacob. We can find a way to work through this. _

_Thanks, Sam. _

Howls sounded around us, and soon we were joined by half a dozen others. Billy had said the pack had decreased in size. Had to be a relief to all of them. The pack-mind was awfully crowded, otherwise.

Then, I remembered something. I wasn't with this pack. I wasn't with any pack. There were no other voices in my mind, no other thoughts, no need to hide any of my recent memories...

Wow. Freeing. And also a problem. How could I show them who to look for if they couldn't see my thoughts?

_Sam? I think you or maybe Quil or Paul is going to have to let Nessie show you the ones we'll be watching for._

_Can't you tell us? Won't you be here?_

_I can and I plan on it, but she can do it much more clearly. And then one of you can share it with the rest of you._

He then told me that they'd all phase human so we could all talk. Sounded good to me. Sam, Quil, Embry, Paul, Jared and Collin and Brady stood in the moonlit circle. A family of brothers.

"Where's Seth?" I asked aloud as everyone got their trousers and shorts back on. He had left New Hampshire when the Cullens did.

"He was persuaded to go to college," Sam informed me. "Sue thought it'd be a good idea. And, of course, we're not as busy now as we used to be." His gaze went around the circle. "We might be, though, Jacob was telling me," Sam said. "Just in case you didn't catch all of it... Jacob, let's run it through again."

"All right," I said, "but it'll be more clear when someone can get with Nessie in the morning."

"What about at the bonfire?" Quil suggested.

"Will that be too late, do you think, Jake?"

"We don't – _you_ don't have to wait so long. I mean, she can tell Paul tonight, too, or in the morning, and you guys can spread the word whenever during the day, right?"

Everyone nodded, and I told them the story and described the possible intruders. "Now," I said when I finished, "I don't know for sure they're coming, but I do know that Nahuel, the one who was here before, has been –" I cut myself short because I felt a growl working out and I was really wanting to let it loose. I calmed myself in a couple of heartbeats and tried again. "Nahuel has wanted to marry-slash-mate Nessie probably since he found out about her, six years back. She's the only other one like him that isn't his half-sister, and he has this idea, I think, that he's almost entitled to her. She told me he makes her feel like he's buying her. On auction or something."

The guys had stuff to say about that, for sure, and I saw fingers flex around the circle while everyone vented their opinion.

"What is her family doing about it? The Cullens have always taken care of their own, we know."

I nodded. "They've got two of them trailing the two bloodsuckers. You remember Jasper and Emmett?" Sam nodded, eyes narrow. "Them."

Sam was not the only one who remembered those two members of the Cullen family.

"I had a request," I said to the pack at large. "I want to run patrol with you while we're here. And, if necessary, fight along with you. I know I'm not part of the pack anymore, and I don't want to cause any confusion, but I have to do this."

We discussed different ways to work that, depending upon where I wanted to patrol and where we might catch a vampire.

"What do we do if we catch this Joham? The guy sounds totally sick," Paul said, thinking perhaps of my sister or any of the girls in La Push. "Will anyone really miss him if he sorta disappears?"

"Hey I'm all for killing him, myself," I said. "Nahuel, maybe not. He hasn't hurt anyone. So long as he doesn't touch Nessie, I've got nothing against him. I mean, nothing worth killing him for, anyway."

More grumbles and more ideas. The moon moved across the clearing sky as we made strategies.

I had another question, too, before we finished. "Who's in charge of performing weddings, these days? Can we just get a J.P. down here or what?" That got a laugh.

We called it a night about then and all of us phased and ran to our separate homes. Paul and I ran together, but we couldn't converse. Actually, that was kind of okay with me. We phased back at the edge of the yard.

"Hey, man, sorry about Rachel and all this." Paul looked really uncomfortable. I know that trying to make excuses for his wife, the mother of his children, and the woman he imprinted on had to be rough. I waved it off. He shook his head. "No. I know it's difficult on you, how she's treating Nessie."

"Hey, Paul, I really do understand. We'll find someplace else to go tomorrow. I don't want any more problems than we already have, you know?"

"Yeah. Okay. We'll see what we can do, then, huh?" He cocked his head. "Think you might stick around here?"

"Two Alphas in La Push? Nah. I can't rejoin the pack. Don't think I'm ready to quit phasing, either. I don't feel – Feel safe enough, yet, you know?"

Paul kicked a bare foot in the damp earth. "I guess. But you're missed, man. We all miss you. It's been different since you left."

"Looks like you guys are doing all right. Sam's a good leader."

"Kind of like a chief, sorta. He's on the council."

"Cool."

"Well," my brother-in-law said after an awkward pause. "Rachel's probably waiting. If you need anything, just get it, okay?"

"Sure, sure."

Thinking with some regret about having to find someplace else to stay, I wove my way through the house to the room we were in tonight, Nessie and me. "Hey," I whispered, seeing her eyes on me as I opened the door.

"Hey yourself. Everything all right?"

"Mostly," I told her, my voice soft so as not to disturb the kids in the next room. One of them snored. "You'll need to show Paul or someone who we're looking for, tomorrow."

"Okay. I can do that."

"Where's the air mattress?" I wondered, grabbing a pair of shorts from my suitcase.

"Um...did you really want it?" she asked, her smile visible. "I really sleep better when I'm with you."

I couldn't refuse her anything, especially not when I slept better when I was with her, too. I reminded her, though, that with two kids on the other side of a very thin wall, anything else was out of the question.

She pouted, but then said, "I guess you want the bride to wear white, huh?"

I hadn't really thought of that before. I drew her against me and tried not to think about my lower legs hanging off the foot of the bed. "Hmmm... That sounds like something Edward would totally approve of," I whispered into her hair. Even if he _had_ given me permission...

She snorted softly. "How did I _know_ you'd say that?"

"Because you know me better than anyone who can't get inside my head," I reminded her. "And you know your dad."

"And he's thousands of miles away," she repeated wistfully from the night before.

I shifted and drew her half on top of me, pushing her thick hair out of her face. "I love you," I reminded her.

She slid slowly up my body until her forehead touched my own. I could see the challenge shining in her eyes as she showed me scenes that hadn't happened anywhere but her imagination – and mine. Then she kissed me, with a sweetness that seemed in complete contrast with the images, but actually just made them better, before sliding slowly back down and sighing. Her hand brushed my cheek and I saw a memory of her saying she loved me, too.

I fell asleep with her scent wafting over me and was completely happy. Tomorrow could wait.

**~*~*~**

Frustrating, isn't it? ;-)

**Excerpt from Chapter 16:**

Back to Grandpa Charlie. His shoulders were stiff, his eyes still narrowed with disbelief, but he was now resuming his normal skin color. That was a relief. "I'm sorry," I said softly. "I didn't mean to upset you. I – I just wanted to see you. It's been a long time."

"Nessie...? But, how? I mean... You look great, but you don't look like my granddaughter. Am I _ever_ going to hear the truth about this? The lies aren't workin'."


	16. Nessie: Family the ties that unravel

**A/N: I don't normally do this. But. I have to make a gripe about how things turned out in Breaking Dawn. The only thing, truly, that bothered me about that book was that everything ended relatively smoothly. I mean, Bella has a horrid pregnancy, but the baby's fine, right? And then she's changed, just like she wanted. And then no newborn-isms apply. And then she's able to interact with her dad. And then there's all the angst about the fake ID creation and she didn't even need it. And the Volturi come but there's no fight and all the Cullens make it out alive and really, the book ends with a trite cliché.**

**Life doesn't work that way. Life has jagged edges. Happily Ever After is rarely as smooth and beautiful as Bella Cullen made it look. It happens, but it's usually at a cost. Somewhere.**

**Thank you for letting me get that off my chest! ~LJ**

_**16. Nessie**_

Family, the ties that unravel. Or bind. Or both.

I knocked on the door to the white clapboard house, memories running through my mind. Grandpa Charlie and his receding brown hair, laughing eyes and ready grin for me. How I had to keep myself from talking in front of him for almost six months. Stuff like that. The police cruiser was parked in the drive, so I figured he was home. Even if it was New Year's Eve.

It wasn't Grandpa that opened the door, though. It was Seth!

"Hey! Wow! Nessie? Jake! Man, you are totally the last people I expected!" Pulling me in, he hugged me and I hugged him back and got out of the way so that Jacob could duck under the door frame and join me, the guys punching each other on the arm and all that male-bonding stuff. "So glad I'm home!" Seth enthused. "Instead of at school. Vacation. Weird," he went on, meeting Jacob's eyes. "Weird doing the twenty-four-seven human thing, you know?"

Light steps came down the small staircase, followed by heavier ones on the upper landing. "Seth? Who is it?"

"Mom! Jacob and Nessie! Is that great or what?"

I had only the barest of memories involving Seth's mother, Sue. She used to be Sue Clearwater but was now Sue Swan. A severely handsome face framed by glossy black hair, Sue had not been someone I had shared with, as a young child. Neither had Grandpa Charlie.

"Remember, 'need to know,' Nessie," Jacob whispered now, at a level only I could hear. And, maybe, Seth. His huge hand was comforting and strong on my shoulder, a thumb stroking me reassuringly.

"Jake! How ya doin', kid? And Nessie, how's my granddaughter?" Charlie appeared and Jacob drew me next to him. The small living room was suddenly feeling a little crowded. I was really nervous, my heart speeding, as my grandfather smiled a greeting to Jacob and then slid his welcoming gaze to my face.

The smile promptly disappeared. "N- Nessie?"

"Hey, Grandpa Charlie," I said. "Yep, it's me."

His face darkening with distrust and something that might have been anger or sorrow – I didn't know him well enough to tell – he approached me and stared at my face. Stared at me, as if by doing so he could strip away the years and find a little girl in there somewhere, maybe. A little girl who was really six years old but might have looked maybe ten, at the most.

Not the woman I had grown into since last I saw him. Just before I left Brazil and Mom and I were packing my suitcase, she had warned me about this. Warned me that my grandpa might not be ready to see me like this. Told me that it was the worst part about being a vampire, for her. Not being able to see her family...

He started to shake, to tremble, as his eyes widened and his face changed colors. I worried for him, all of a sudden. "Jacob?" I whispered, frightened. "Is he okay?"

Jacob moved me behind him a little, and off to one side. "Hey, Charlie. Relax, okay? It's Nessie. Totally. Trust me."

Seth, not nearly as tall as Jacob, though they appeared to be about the same age and had similar coloring and musculature, clapped my grandpa on the shoulder. "Hey, it's her, Charlie. Really. She's just a little taller than she was the last time I saw her. I was telling you about her, remember? When I got home from New Hampshire?"

I darted a glance to Sue, who was standing back from it all with a distant calm to her face. She didn't like me. She didn't like vampires at all. The Cold Ones from the legends were the mortal enemies of the shapeshifters of her people. I knew that.

Back to Grandpa Charlie. His shoulders were stiff, his eyes still narrowed with disbelief, but he was now resuming his normal skin color. That was a relief. "I'm sorry," I said softly. "I didn't mean to upset you. I – I just wanted to see you. It's been a long time."

"Nessie...? But, how? I mean... You look great, but you don't look like my granddaughter. Am I _ever_ going to hear the truth about this? The lies aren't workin'."

I stepped out from behind my Jacob, wishing I could just share it all with my grandfather like I did with my family. But I couldn't. That would probably freak him out worse than seeing me did. "I'm the daughter of Edward and Bella Cullen," I said slowly. "That's the truth. I, um... I had a growth-spurt."

Grandpa Charlie choked on that, but Jacob chuckled and wrapped his arms around me reassuringly. Seth shook his head. "I'll say. You only looked sixteen last time I saw you."

I rolled my eyes at my old friend and turned again to my grandfather. "I didn't want – Mom said that it would be hard for you to see me. Hard for her, too, not seeing you. I – I wanted to try, though."

Jacob's heart was thudding behind me, its beat powerful. "Charlie. Sue. Seth. There's a bonfire tonight. On the cliffs. If you want to come, you're invited. Also, we're getting married. You're family, and Nessie wants to include you."

Seth crowed with joy. "Wow! When? I'm getting an invite, right?"

My grandfather's face changed colors again. "No. _That's not right_. _No_. Look," he ground out, sounding as if something were strangling him, "I don't know how this happened. Don't _want_ to know. My daughter gets sick and turns into something – something real pretty, but she doesn't look right anymore. That I can get. Okay. Don't like it, but okay. But I can't _stomach_ the idea of a little girl who should be in_ first grade_," he continued, the words coming thick and fast, "marrying a man in his mid-twenties. That is against the law and I won't tolerate it!"

"Stop it!" I half-shouted, because he made my relationship with Jacob sound horrible and awful and it wasn't. He just didn't understand. I knew that. But I would not let him say such things about Jacob and me.

By now, Jacob's forearms were trembling and rippling. I put my hand to his cheek without looking at him. A memory of us in my closet after he'd ripped the door off poured to his mind and I felt the danger pass.

I held up a hand, determined to have my say, anyway, even if my grandfather kicked me out the moment right after. "It's against the law? Legally, Grandpa, I don't even exist. _Legally_, there is no such person as Renesmee Carlie Cullen. I'm not a little girl. I'm an adult, this person in front of you. I am. I just got to that place a lot faster than some and – and I'll probably stay like this a lot longer than others. Sometimes, Grandpa," I went on more softly, "reality is stranger than fairy tales." I swallowed the tears that threatened and gripped Jacob's arm. "I would like it if you came to the bonfire, tonight. But if you decide you can't – that this part of the world is more than you want to handle, I totally understand. I won't bother you anymore. I want you to be happy. So does Mom. If that means you're happier without us, we'll understand. I won't come back. Just don't come to the bonfire, if you don't want to. Then I'll know."

"Wait, Nessie," Seth said, sounding overwhelmed. "Just wait."

I found a smile for him from somewhere. Gave my grandfather a long study. "G'bye Grandpa."

I didn't look at anyone, just slid out of Jacob's arms and opened the front door, my eyes swimming so that I could barely see.

Jacob and Seth followed me after a few moments, but I didn't listen to them, talking low, with hard notes at a level audible to anyone. Instead, I leaned against the old Buick sedan we had borrowed from Quil to make the trip – Jacob and I had wanted to be as conventional as possible – and childishly put my hands over my ears and hummed a song my dad had written for me for my birthday...

Jacob's long arms enfolded me, Seth's awkward apologies met my ears eventually. I just couldn't deal with another rejection, so soon after Rachel's and Billy's.

"See you tonight?" Seth asked Jacob.

"Yeah. If you make it out. But I know – I know she wouldn't want you to have a family fight over it, Seth, so if you can't, we'll understand."

"Jake. You're my brother, man. I'll be there. You know it."

"Thanks, Seth." The mangled voice was mine. I hugged him before I slid into the passenger seat of the car. Jacob drove us away from Charlie's house and all I wanted to do was bawl. I wanted my mom.

"I have an idea," Jacob said bracingly.

"About what?" I wiped my face off.

"About tonight. We can go camping, after the bonfire. Then it'll just be the two of us and no one will have to give up their beds or anything. We can actually go hunting –" he paused for a chuckle and I had to smile at him through blurred eyes – "so that'll take care of the food part."

"I was thinking, too," I told him. "We can't go to Vegas because I promised my dad I'd stay on the reservation, remember? And also, I don't have the right papers to go get married to you in Vegas. I mean – all my identification is already for Vanessa Wolfe. And if we get married..."

"If?" he growled playfully, grabbing my hand in his free one as he drove.

"_When_," I corrected, "I – I'd really kinda like to be Renesmee Black... Let you keep your name and all that. Or maybe Vanessa Black and still be Nessie. Or something. Some part of me, you know..."

We were in La Push by now and he pulled over to the side of the road, turning off the engine and shifting a little to face me. "Nessie, honey, what is it?" Moving my hair from off my shoulder, he brushed my face. "Hey. Your mind's going a mile a minute and I can hear your heart, remember. Something's bugging you."

I stared at him. "You mean _besides_ the fact that your dad and sister – my future in-laws – can't stand the _sight_ of me? Besides the fact that my _grandfather_ can't bear to look at me, either? Besides the fact that there's this mad scientist genetic researcher vampire who wants to marry me off to his _son_? Besides the fact that I look like a _freak_ and don't have a real identity anywhere? What could _possibly_ be bugging me, Jacob?" My voice rose higher and higher as I came unglued, finishing with me choking on my own sobs and leaning forward to drop my head on the dashboard in front of me.

He swore under his breath and moved on the seat so that he was bracing himself between the doors, pulling me on top of him, in his arms, and settling my head on his shoulder. His voice was low and rough and deeply apologetic. "Honey, I am so sorry. I know it's not enough to say, but it's all I got. And. You don't look like a freak. You're beautiful. Ever since you were a baby, you've been beautiful. Even Charlie said so." I stiffened and swallowed down a cry. He pressed his lips to my hair. "We'll try to get you home as soon as it's safe, okay?"

"No. I don't want to go home. I want to stay."

Moving his head a little back to see my wet face, he eyed me quizzically, as if thinking I'd blown a gasket or something. "What?"

I guessed I'd forgotten to tell him. A sheepish smile worked its way through my confusion and displacement. "I like it here, Jacob. I want to stay."

"How?"

That was the problem. I had tried, while he was gone the night before, to figure something out. "I don't know. And I know we have to go back. I do. A girl just likes to dream, you know?" A couple of passes with his thumb dried my cheeks as he continued to study me. "Something about this place, Jacob... Moves me. Makes me feel I – I belong here. I know... I'm like the rest of my family. I'm a Cullen. And we Cullens move around a lot so people don't suspect anything... But here... Here maybe I could just be me. Here, where you grew up. Home, you know? I could maybe go to college and get a degree online and teach or work here, where people can get used to me?"

His expression had grown more tender and incredulous with every sentence, his heart pounding harder than usual in his chest. "Honey, I don't know what to say. I'd never thought of taking you away from your family. I figured that I'd spend the rest of my life with you wherever you guys had to go."

I remembered something my dad had told me, right after my big slip on the way to Brazil, when I forgot to remove my hand from Jacob's cheek and he saw – vividly – how I felt about him. I had freaked out and talked to my dad, who had said: _When you care for someone, care for them so much it hurts, you have to put their needs above your own. Can you do that? _

Jacob had proven that to me. Over and over again. "But what do _you_ want, Jacob? What do you need? Do you _want_ to do that? I mean... We have good times, for sure. And we don't lack for anything except, maybe, neighbors..." I tried to smile, but this was a deep subject and I couldn't find much lightness in myself. "But it's not where you grew up. Your family isn't there. It's just us. And I know the smell of vampire completely irritates your nose..."

His lips curled briefly in a smile before he leaned his head against the driver's side window, one hand idly combing through my hair. "Honey, I've never thought about it, honest. Wow. No kidding about the smell," he added with a chuckle, "but the rest of it, well, you've kind of floored me. Let me think on it."

"Sure, sure," I murmured against his throat. "So long as we're together, that's the main thing."

"Right." He tugged lightly on my hair so I angled up to look at him. "Anything else you want to get off your chest, while we're steaming up the windows?"

"I just want to call my mom. Ask her to send me something white to wear..."

His grin was electric. "There ya go. Good idea. You do that and – Well, hell. Where are we going to go, anyway?" He shook his head. "Some soon-to-be husband I am. Don't even have a place for you to change your clothes."

"Camping, you said?"

He sounded entirely disgusted with himself. "I guess."

"We can go in style," I reminded him. "Vanessa Wolfe has an awesome line of credit."

He cleaned the windows and I called Mom. On the way to Newton's Sporting Goods – where my mom used to work, hoping they'd be open on New Year's Eve – I phoned.

"Nessie! How are you, darling? Everything all right?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that. "Uh, no invading mad scientist vampires yet, if that's what you mean. You sound on edge though, Mom. What's up?"

Her laugh in the phone was a little nervous. "It was going to be a surprise."

"Uh-oh." I shot a look to Jacob, but he appeared as clueless as I was. "What kind of surprise."

"Well. We're in Texas and sort of about to board a plane for Seattle," my mother informed me.

"What?" I almost whined, almost shouted. "Mom!" Thing is, I was kind of happy to hear they were coming. I just didn't know where _they_ were going to stay, either.

I could just see the expression on her face, too, when she said, "You do realize you're my only daughter and you're in danger?"

"I am?"

"Edward wants to speak to Jake."

"Jacob... Time for another battlechief conference."

His face hardened as he released my hand to take the phone. "What, did you lose them?"

"Not exactly," I heard my dad say. "But he did manage to lie to me, before. Nahuel must have told him of our different talents, so he was prepared with a misleading trail of thought."

Jacob snorted. "Hell, Edward, I've done that, too." I blinked.

"Yes, but with you, I have complete trust that you're doing the best thing for Nessie. Different situation."

Jacob maneuvered through Forks until he reached Newton's store. They were open until four o'clock on New Year's Eve, the hand-printed sign on the door said. Only a couple of cars were in the lot. Jacob and my dad kept talking while I got out of the sedan and flipped my wallet out of my back pocket, double-checking my identification and credit card.

I waited by the front bumper, watching Jacob. I could hear him, but not my dad, from out here. "There'll be enough, if he gets that far, yes. No. We won't be. No. Working on that right now. Is it open? Not enough time, I'm thinking. Not for tonight. Enough. You'll find us. Now, can you get Bella on the phone? Nessie had one more thing to ask her, I think, before you guys get on the plane." Unfolding himself from behind the steering wheel, he tossed me the phone.

I caught it easily. "Dad? Mom?"

It was my mother. "I'm here, darling. What did you need to ask me?"

I rolled my eyes at Jacob. _Did you have to remember that part?_ I mouthed at him. "I was going to ask you, before Dad and Jacob went all _battlechief_ on me, if you would send me something white to wear."

There was a pause. "Something white?"

I shook my head and smiled at the expression I imagined for her. "Jacob has this idea that he wants his bride to wear white. Go figure."

Beautiful laughter sounded through the tiny speaker and Jacob drew me next to himself as he opened the door to the store.

"We've got it covered. Alice can't exactly see you or Jacob, you know, but her own eyes are enough for something so obvious. White, we've got." Then, she sounded a little melancholy. "I honestly didn't think I'd lose you so soon, Renesmee."

"But you'll be seeing me real soon, Mom. So we can do all that girl stuff tonight, okay? At the bonfire?"

She agreed and their plane was boarding, so we disconnected.

Jacob started a little to see who was behind the counter. I didn't know much of anyone up here, so I hadn't any idea, but he did. And the man, with the name _Mike Newton_ on his neon-colored vest, recognized Jacob, too. That was weird. He then glanced at me, looking confused.

Then, the vested man smiled like a salesman. "Hey, I remember you. High school. Jacob, right? From La Push? We met on the beach. Got sick at that movie?"

Jacob nodded, his expression completely impassive. "I remember. Your store, now?"

Mike Newton grinned more broadly. "Well, I manage, yeah. Family owned and operated! What can I get for you today to end the year?"

Jacob and I were probably the best customers for the entire month of December. We left the store with a tent, propane stove, some cooking gear, dishes, and pair of sleeping bags that would be combined into one enormous one. In addition, we got a couple of air mattresses and other things that struck our fancy. I didn't say much of anything to Mike Newton, apart from being introduced as "Vanessa Wolfe," a girl from out of town.

"See anything of Bella Swan, I mean, Cullen?" Mike asked Jacob as he was ringing up our enormous purchase.

"Not lately," Jacob said after a moment. I wondered how loosely he was defining _lately_, but I kept my smile to myself. "They left the country a few months ago."

"Yeah? Hey, I just heard that they were back East at college. So she's okay and everything? Last you heard?"

"Yep," Jacob assented, popping the _P_ sound. "Last I heard, she and her husband were happy."

"Well, that's good," Mike went on, sounding really insincere. I wondered what the story was, there, but decided I could ask Jacob later. "So you sticking around?" His eager eyes lit on me, next.

I casually wrapped my left hand around Jacob's bare forearm, so that my ring was obvious. "We're thinking about it," I said, when Jacob seemed unable to answer. "There's really pretty country, here."

"Lots of hiking and biking trails, too, and I can see that you're all ready to explore them, eh?" He rang up the bill and looked to Jacob first. I gave him my ID and credit card and he seemed surprised, but processed the information before duly checking my signatures and returning my card and ID to me. Conscientious, anyway.

"Thank you," I murmured.

"Yeah. Thanks. Glad you were open, Mike."

"Me too. Hey, if you hear from Bella, tell her I said _hi_."

After a quick stop by the small grocery store, we returned to La Push. Through it all, Jacob was pensively preoccupied. With my parents due in Seattle that evening, so was I. The battlechief stuff was on his mind. I didn't want to ask him about it while he was driving.

Still, I looked forward to the bonfire. To seeing people I'd heard about for years. And, hopefully, to reconciling with Billy Black. I hated that the problem between him and Jacob was my fault.

**~*~*~**

So, did you like seeing Mike Newton? *ducks! runs!*

**Excerpt from Chapter 17:**

"I hate what he's done," she whispered. "I hate it." Her jaw tightened and she turned from me, to roll up into a ball on the seat of the car. Her voice was low, rasping, breathless. As if she fought against herself to say what she really felt. "I want him to _die_. I want him to never be able to hurt another human woman, or cause her own child to ki - _kill_ her. Ever."


	17. Jacob: This wasn't how I wanted it to be

**A/N: Finally, we make it to the bonfire. Bella and Edward arrive. The wolves go on patrol, with Nessie's images of Joham and Nahuel clear in their minds. Yes, this is where things begin to pick up a little. **

**Thank you for reading and for your insights and comments! ~LJ**

_**17. Jacob**_

This wasn't how I wanted it to be.

"Damn," I muttered, pulling once again to the side of the road once I'd brought Nessie and the ton of camping gear back to La Push.

"If you want to go see your dad again, I completely understand. I can go, um, put up the tent or something, if you'll show me where you want it." She smiled encouragingly at me, her brown eyes wistful over the crooked smile she offered.

I cupped her face with one hand. "Nessie, honey, I have to be honest here and say that my dad is not number one on my list just this second."

Her frown crinkled her forehead. "No? Um, is it –? What Dad wanted to talk to you about?"

I ruffled her hair a little before closing my eyes and leaning back. I breathed in and out, calming myself. How Sam kept his face so calm was still beyond me, but I had to be calm. Calm. Measured. Controlled. It wasn't easy. In my mind, I could see the vampire that Nessie had shown me, whisking her away from me. Being unable to reach him, somehow. Being unable to rescue her. Hearing her screaming for me and being unable to help her.

Even the imagined helplessness was devastating. I had to breathe through it. Breathe. "Yes," I finally managed to tell her. "That."

"Ah. I didn't hear the whole conversation," she said softly, running a light finger down my forearm. "Did my parents decide to come because he was on his way? Do they think they'll beat him here?" Her voice was high, edged, as if she were trying to calm herself, too. Above us, the rain tapped soothingly on the hood of the car, but inside, the tension was tight. Regret sliced through me. "You and Dad talk like allied battlechiefs," she remarked. "Like you've fought together, before."

"You're quick," I told her, pleased at her insight, but regretful as well. I hated that her world got so dangerous so fast. "I wish you didn't have to be." My whisper wasn't nearly as calm as it should have been.

She eyed me through thick lashes. "Tell me."

"Yes, he and his son are on their way. The thing is, Bella will know exactly where we'll be tonight. So she and Edward can come to the bonfire. Along with everyone else. Joham, if he finds us so soon, might just duck and run when he sees you so well-protected."

"I hope so. But I also hope..." She bit her lip and curled her hands into fists as she stared intently out the windshield.

"What?" I prompted, nudging her when she didn't continue.

Her head whipped around, hair flying sideways. "I hate what he's done," she whispered. "I hate it." Her jaw tightened and she turned from me, to roll up into a ball on the seat of the car. Her voice was low, rasping, breathless. As if she fought against herself to say what she really felt. "I want him to _die_. I want him to never be able to hurt another human woman, or cause her own child to ki - _kill_ her. Ever." I could hear the revulsion in her words. She had first-hand knowledge of exactly what happened to the women Joham impregnated.

"Nessie..." I didn't know what to say to her. Helplessness was almost crippling.

She held up a hand. "No, don't. I know what I did to my mother. I know that she wouldn't have lived if it wasn't for the fact that she had all of you taking care of her." Did she really know? Did she remember? Of course she did. I hadn't seen her face, but she had to have seen my hands, anyway... I was just sick for her, right now. My guts were in a knot and I couldn't find a word for her. Not a word. "My father loves her. I don't blame him, of course. I know that I was unexpected. I've heard that. But Nahuel's father is doing this on purpose. _ On purpose!_" She hit her leg. "I wish I could rip him apart myself."

"No!" Finally, I had a word. I reached for her and forcibly brought her back against myself, turning sideways and shifting her to sit on top of me. Her body was hard, unyielding, under my hands. "Honey," I whispered. "Listen to me. If he so much as tries for you again, if he even looks at you, he's toast. Tiny little slivers of toast." She turned her eyes to me and I felt my own burn with tears. The pain... Endless layers of it, unfolding in front of me. No one had ever heard this from her. None of us had ever seen it... "Aw, honey, I am so sorry..."

The hard expression crumpled. "Jacob...?"

I wrapped my arms tight around her and held her while she cried. It was all I could do for her. "I love you. I will always love you," I reminded her. "We all love you, honey. All of us. Never forget that."

Her pain was my pain. I felt I hadn't done enough, said enough, something. Regret. Remorse. Failure. All of it pounding at me. "He won't touch you," I whispered fiercely over her ear. "Never. Neither of them. Ever. I'll keep you safe. I promise."

The shaking stopped eventually. Her face dried. She apologized, haltingly. I told her not to. She told me she loved me. I told her I knew that.

Then, she smiled a little through wet lashes. "We're steaming up the windows again."

"We should be steaming up a tent, instead," I told her, trying to distract her.

I guessed it worked. "Where?"

Good question. "There're miles of open spaces, honey. I'll find us a place. And then, we can get the food together to take to the bonfire. I don't want Bella to get there before we do."

"That would be a tragedy," Nessie agreed with mock solemnity. But then, she met my eyes before we slid apart from one another and I saw more deeply. She bit her lip and rested her hand against my jaw, keeping my eyes locked on hers. I saw her memories, again. Of her birth. I winced, but didn't look away. Because then, she showed me something indescribably precious. She showed me the very first time our eyes met – from her perspective. And how she had been _waiting_ for me to see her. Even then, she knew my voice. Her anticipation had been exquisite, our meeting a body-warming joy for her. She knew that I was hers and she was just waiting for me to know that, too.

I tugged her back into my arms and captured her lips under mine. Finally, out of breath and feeling as if I'd run up a mountain in the past half-hour, I pulled my head back a little. "Were you saving that one?"

"For a special occasion, yep. I love you."

Strangely enough, I felt forgiven, there in that memory. Forgiven of every screw up I had ever done or ever would do. "Thank you," I whispered. I don't know how long we sat there. Wasn't counting moments. I felt as if, in such a very short time in our relationship, something new had grown. It was kind of amazing.

Naturally, it had to be something really stupid to shake us from this place. My stomach rumbled. Loudly. So did hers. We resumed our seats in the car, cleaned the windows and got back on the road. "Ready for the bonfire?" I asked, my voice still a little uneven.

Hers wasn't much better. "I will be, by the time we get there."

It took a while to find a place that I hoped would be miles away from Edward but still on the reservation. Away from loggers. Away from houses. Yet, in the forest. In the protected range of my old home. And when I found it, I told her to sit down on a boulder and wait while I set up the tent.

She wanted to help, of course. "I like helping us get settled," she reminded me.

"It's tradition. I have to set up the tent. You can fix it up inside," I informed her.

"Tradition?" she asked pertly, one brow asking me a volume of questions. "Human? Werewolf? Quileute? All of the above? None of the above?"

"The building of the house is the husband's duty, according to the old stories," I explained. "And the wife brings food and blankets." I could imagine how it must have been, hundreds of years ago, when my people were unconfined to a reservation. When the young husband was aided by his family and friends to build a house. When it was done, he would take his bride to it, after the proper declarations were made in front of the rest of the tribe. _Then_, getting married was a lot less complicated.

"Sounds a lot less complicated," Nessie murmured, not knowing she was echoing my thoughts. "So can we consider ourselves married when we're done setting up tent-keeping?" She sounded like that would be fine by her.

I had to chuckle, looking up from where I was hammering the tent's pegs into the soft earth. "Not quite. Technically, honey, I should be building you a whole house," I reminded her. "Something substantial. Something that would shelter us and our children, you know?" I hit the next peg too hard, frustrated with the current situation in our lives, and had to dig it out. "I'm sorry, Nessie. I – I wish there was more of a welcome for you here."

She was behind me in a breath, her arms warm as she knelt and wrapped them around me. "This is just great," she told me. "Secluded, solitary. I'm good with that." Then, she stood up and pulled me with her. "What I'm not good with is what's going on tonight."

I chucked the tools down and took her hands in mine. "Nessie honey, we should be fine. Edward said they should be here first, remember."

She grimaced and brushed the wet dirt from my hands. "I remember." She wouldn't look at me, though I tried ducking down and catching her eyes with mine.

Frustrated, I dropped her hands and returned to the tent. I had to set up the rain-awning. Which was kind of a shame because the top of the tent was made from a finely woven net that would have allowed us to see the stars through the treetops. I could imagine the two of us in here, side by side on our backs, watching the stars and the moon, the moon's light bouncing off her skin with a soft, silky luminescence.

My sigh was harsh, creating a cloud of steam in front of my face.

Nessie, her hands in her back pockets, watched me work for a while, her expressions shifting every time I glanced at her. "I bet I could figure this out myself," she finally said. "If you want to go see your dad. Try to patch things up."

"I'm not going without you," I told her flatly. "He has known about you for years. He's had years to vent his spleen without insulting you like that." Fury burned low in my chest from yesterday. An abomination? How _dared_ he call her that? And then today, with Charlie! There were no words hard enough to express myself, so I just growled now and extended the waterproofed nylon over the tent, anchoring it with the tiny steel hooks in the proper holes. "No. If he wants to reconcile, it'll be with both of us or neither. What's that line from the Bible? _And the two shall become one flesh_ or something? Have you ever read that?" She nodded, and I saw her bronze curls brush her shoulders. "That's how I feel."

"Really?" She caught the nylon and dexterously finished the last anchoring of it, her smile wistful. "Me, too. Even if we haven't, exactly."

I came around the tent and wrapped her up against me, putting my father's face behind me for the moment. "We've come close," I reminded her.

"Yep. I've got food and blankets, you know..." She brushed my cheek with her fingertips before pressing her whole hand against me and giving me a fast-forward notion of _becoming one flesh_ and all that. Biblically. She followed that with a kiss that was as sudden as it was welcome.

"You're amazing," I murmured. After all that she had been through. All in one day. "Rain check?"

She laughed. "I don't know, Jacob. You've got plenty of those that still need paying off."

"I'll get right on it when I know you're out of harm's way. Promise."

When we reached the cliff where the bonfire was being held, I felt better about our ability to keep my Nessie safe. Sam and Emily were there, with their kids. Son and daughter. Jared and Kim and their sons. Brady and Shawna and their daughter. Paul and my nephews. Members of the pack from when we were huge, back when Nessie was born, who were still wolves. Members who were no longer. Elders, others who wanted to celebrate.

"Why isn't Rachel here?" Nessie whispered.

"Probably staying with our dad," I whispered back. She nodded.

Quil arrived with Claire and Nessie waved to them both. "We've got your car," she called over the greetings of others, the sounds of those who were setting up the wood for the fire, the rustle of potato chip bags and the hissing of soda bottles being opened. "Thanks so much for letting us borrow it today."

Claire wove through the adults to come say hello. "Happy New Year, Nessie! Happy New Year, Jacob! I get to stay up as long as I want, tonight!" She and Nessie exchanged high-fives and I tossed Quil his car keys, watching them arc against the night sky until they landed with a jingle in his palm.

Sam caught my eye after he settled his family. Slowly, the rest of the functioning pack coalesced in a circle while others at the party set the wood alight. The smell of gasoline was very strong. Almost like a beacon. Not that the bonfire wouldn't be its own beacon in a matter of minutes. _Edward, you better get here and fast_, I thought, running a quick look over the assembling crowd. Nessie was with Claire, making Quil and I both a little nervous.

"Uh, Sam?" we said at the same time. Exchanging a look, we shrugged. "Never mind."

"Patrols," Sam rapped out. "I'll go out first, with Jacob. Then Quil and Collin. Embry and Paul next, with Brady and Jared on the final run. Questions?"

I didn't have any. It made total sense for me to be with Sam, though I was a little concerned, to be honest. I mean, Sam was the biggest and the strongest of the pack. If I couldn't be there to protect Nessie, I damn sure would have asked him to be there in my stead. Still, since I couldn't communicate with the others but I could with Sam, it only made sense for us to pair up.

Sam then outlined the general circuits we should run and we split up to return to our families. Quil came by to pick up Claire and I returned to Nessie to let her know what was going on.

"Hey, Quil," I murmured on the way back, "would you..."

"Sure. Of course. I got your back. And hers," he tagged on with a wide grin. "Does she like hotdogs?"

"Only if they're vegetarian," I joked. Then, "I'll keep an eye on Claire, too, when you're out."

"_She_ might want to hang with Emily. Then Sam can keep an eye on her. He's used to it."

"Sure, sure," I murmured, reaching the girls and pulling Nessie aside with me. "Hey. I'm on first run, tonight, with Sam," I said in answer to the question in her eyes. "Quil will stay with you and Claire. Save me some food, will you?"

"Isn't that my job?" she inquired, a sparkle in her eyes as the fire roared behind me. "You be safe out there. I'm really nervous. Wish I could run with you."

I grinned at her and took her chin in my hand. "Later, honey. We'll run later, promise." I meant to leave her with a quick kiss. I did. Something that said "routine" and "don't worry, honey." But she pressed herself against me with a soft desperation that left lighthearted _routine_ far behind.

"Be safe," she whispered.

"I have the feeling you would have acted with or without permission," I heard next, in a voice so quiet that it didn't even catch the audible range of most humans, though likely Quil heard it, too.

"Dad! Mom!" Nessie spun in my arms and all but squealed to see Bella and Edward making their way through the thronging layers of Quileutes. She met them with a low sound that reminded me of a distant avalanche as she hit her mother and her father had to catch them both to keep everyone on their feet in Nessie Cullen's enthusiasm.

Relief surged through me in my next heartbeat. It wasn't that I didn't trust Quil; I did. But I had much less worry riding on my shoulders knowing that Edward would be watching over Nessie. It wasn't the skill, it was the heart of it. Even from a vampire.

I stayed long enough to make sure Sam and the others knew the Cullens were there and to make sure Nessie got something to eat. She and Claire were discussing potato chips with Quil while Edward pulled everything he needed to know from my head.

_I'll howl if I catch him_, I told Edward. The nod and the too-sharp look were my answer.

After another look at Nessie, running my fingers again through her hair, I turned my back on the crackling fat in the fire, on the beer, on the sodas, the munching and laughing and gossip. Sam and I hit the edge of the forest, stripped, tied and phased in tandem as if we hadn't spent the last few years in different packs, thousands of miles apart.

_Don't try to take him alone_, he cautioned me. _Track and call for us._

_I'll try to keep that in mind_. And then we were off, claws digging into the wet earth, the sky darkly star-spangled above us, and Nessie's images of Joham and Nahuel clear in our minds.

**~**~**

**Excerpt from Chapter 18:**

They had just disappeared into the dark chaos down the rise, where the cars were parked in a way that I was sure would guarantee an accident or seven before the new year was really under way, when Dad's hand stiffened on my shoulder. "Nessie."

Fear gripped my stomach and I slammed to my feet to see if I was being an idiot. Mom rose too, standing in front of me like the shield she was. "Think this guy isn't into head games," I muttered over her ear. Dad stood in front and to one side of her, knowing that my back was to the fire; no one would come that way


	18. Nessie: Wolf Girls stick together

**A/N: Hang on tight! ~LJ**

_**18. Nessie**_

Wolf Girls Stick Together

I crushed Mom to me, stories trying to tumble through my mind. Stories like getting engaged in Brazil in a communication kiosk. Stories like hearing about Jacob and Imprinting and feeling helpless. Stories like meeting Claire. Stories like seeing Grandpa Charlie. Stories like meeting that Mike Newton guy at the sporting goods store.

There were lots of stories I had no intention of sharing with her, though. And these were stories I had to NOT think about. So of course one of them slipped and my dad coughed abruptly. I caught his eye in some alarm, mostly humor. He compressed his lips and shook his head, his eyes dancing but still – Still the eyes of a father, I guessed. Wistful that his little girl was not so little anymore...

With a hotdog and chips balanced on my lap, I sat on a solid log with my mother next to me. "May I?" I asked, holding my hand to her face.

She grinned. "Yes! Do you know, I've _missed_ this! I'll be so glad to get you back home again."

Behind us, Dad smiled a little down at me and nodded. "Me too. I miss your mind, sweetheart."

I blushed, glad that the firelight would keep them from seeing that, anyway. To Mom, I merely _looked_ as I shared with her what had been happening, in the order I remembered it. The Carefully Edited For Parents scenes, anyway. With all the emotional overtones that went with each one. She – and Dad, since I knew he was getting all of this, too – were accustomed to my way of telling stories. Their expressions changed rapidly as I shifted from moment to moment, scene to scene. The wistful look in Mom's honeyed eyes when I got engaged. The understanding, the empathy when I learned about Jacob's Imprinting. The calm enjoyment of meeting Claire, the outrage and sorrow over my visit with my Grandpa Charlie.

"So who is Mike Newton anyway?" I asked them both, before taking a bite of my cooling hot dog. With spicy mustard. I was really hungry and it was delicious.

Mom angled a brow at me. "A guy from high school, darling. One of my first friends in Forks."

"A nuisance. Rude and obnoxious," Dad countered, caressing my mother's silky hair.

I nodded, trying to look shrewd and knowledgeable. "I get it. He was after Mom, huh?"

I watched her snort, then giggle, then laugh and, for me, that was just the best. Claire was on a low lawn chair near us and she laughed too, because Mom's giggle was contagious. "Are you a wolf girl, too?" Claire asked Mom.

Mom shook her head, a smiled lifting her face from within. "Nope. I'm his," she told Claire, reaching to take Dad's hand.

"When did you find out you were a wolf girl?" I asked Claire, curling around to see her face.

Claire's face suddenly went secretive. "You know, I forgot. I mean, _they_ aren't –" Biting her lip, she looked for and found Quil and waved. Then, she whispered. "It's supposed to be a secret! I forgot!"

"My parents can keep the secret, too," I told her underneath the crackling of the fire. "Remember, they're MY parents and I'm a wolf girl like you, right?"

Relief washed over Claire's russet brown skin. "Well, that's good. I wouldn't want to get Quil in trouble."

"Never! He's your best friend, right?"

"Yes!"

We nodded, understanding each other.

Quil pulled Claire and me up, dragging me along to meet everyone that he could think of while we waited for Jacob and Sam to return. I was introduced to Sam's wife, Emily. Mom had told me about her, before, so I knew not to stare at the scars along her face. I was thankful that when Jacob exploded too close to me, all I got was a broken arm, growth spurt, and one arm an inch shorter than the other. Really, in comparison, it wasn't that big a deal.

"So you're Jacob's girl?" Emily asked, her gaze piercing even in the firelight. "Heard about you. Heard you were getting married?"

I waved my left hand in front of me. "Yep! My parents even came up. Jacob mentioned hitting Vegas or something."

Emily laughed softly. "He's _such_ a romantic." Then, she shook her head. "Actually, you don't have to go that far. We can probably get you legally hitched here on the rez, you know. Sam and I did. Lots of different ways we think it's legal and out there," she shrugged and smiled a little, "they just want an official certificate on file. We do that. You'll just need a couple of blankets..." She grinned more broadly. "Worked for us!"

"I like that," I said, eagerness swirling inside of me. "Oh, I like that a lot. Can I come see you tomorrow or the next day? Not sure how long we'll be here, but it'd be great to do something while my folks are still here."

Her look flew past me, past the fire and to where my parents were sitting. Well, Mom was sitting, Dad was standing, scanning the darkness, the parked cars, the trees. "The alliance still holds," she murmured.

"Thank you," I said, pressing her hand with one of mine. "Thank you and Sam and everyone for being so welcoming of Jacob. He's missed it, here. Won't say so, but he has."

She probably didn't hear me; her eyes were on my hand. "You're hot," she accused. "Like – like Sam and his brothers." Her gaze bored into mine. "You're not a shapeshifter, right? A wolf? No, you're not." She grimaced. "Did you shake hands with Billy Black? Let him feel your skin? I – I heard about all of that. Mostly. From Paul and Sam." I winced; she offered me an apologetic half-smile. "No secrets in the pack, Nessie," she told me, her voice sad but proud. "It's uncomfortable for all of us, but... It's the price we all pay, I guess."

"One of them, anyway." I was thinking of her scars and my arm and who knew what other injuries other "wolf girls" had that no one ever saw.

"If you were to shake hands with him, touch him like that, maybe Billy'd see that you really do make sense." She chuckled as one of her children had a marshmallow catch fire. "Not like some kids, anyway... But really. If he could feel that you and Jake are more the same, like that... Maybe he'd get it, too."

"Thanks, Emily. I appreciate the tip. I'll try."

Emily called for Claire right after that. "Quil? Can I borrow Claire for a minute? To help me get some more food? Sam and I didn't get it all up in the first load."

Quil nodded. "I'll come with you," he offered, nodding at me to go back to my parents. Like a good girl, I did, knowing that poor Quil was probably stretched thin enough with both Sam and Jacob asking him to keep an eye on their girls and families and so on.

They had just disappeared into the dark chaos down the rise, where the cars were parked in a way that I was sure would guarantee an accident or seven before the new year was really under way, when Dad's hand stiffened on my shoulder. "Nessie."

Fear gripped my stomach and I slammed to my feet to see if I was being an idiot. Mom rose too, standing in front of me like the shield she was. "Think this guy isn't into head games," I muttered over her ear. Dad stood in front and to one side of her, knowing that my back was to the fire; no one would come that way.

"What is it?" I hissed at my dad. "Is Jacob out there?"

"No," he shot back, not looking at me. "I heard Joham, though. He's...looking. Looking for – No!"

The challenge sounded immediately thereafter. "Well! I'm prepared to trade!" Joham's _voice_ I heard, but I didn't _see_ him.

A snarl ripped from both of my parents as they formed a stone wall in front of me, but I was too fast for them. No, I didn't see Joham, but I did see Nahuel. And he was holding a human in his arms.

A limp little girl. Named Claire.

I ran at speeds faster than human, around the perimeter of confused, frightened people. "Nahuel! Let her go! You can't do this to her!" I reached the cars, trying to find a good landing place for a jump.

He was standing on top of a blue pick-up, legs firmly spread. "Will you take her place, Renesmee? It is all the trade I want."

"Yes!" I blurted. "Just let me get her safe. You have my word." My mind was already figuring out how to keep that word to the letter while never leaving La Push.

A scream pierced the night, and I halted in my tracks. In that instant, my parents were again in front of me, preventing me from doing what I had to do to save Claire.

And Joham appeared, with his hand at Emily Uley's throat. "_Your_ word? The same word that promised to hear my son at your next birthday? The word your own father told me had been broken? _Please_," Joham said, his voice dripping with sour honey, "please show me you can indeed _keep_ your word. I'm sure, if you will not, that either of these humans will make excellent candidates as well."

_Dad, let me by. I can't let him do that to these people. I'm more _durable_. Let me by!_

"No," my father snarled, his hand an iron vise on my right arm.

I would have struggled against him, if three wolves, then a fourth, hadn't bounded from the darkness, their growls and warlike snarls fit to crush rock.

**~*~*~**

**Excerpt from Chapter 19:**

We growled, the menace thick between us as we made slow steps toward our designated targets. Quil was whining, his fur stiff as he circled Nahuel, trying to get the best angle that would not hurt Claire.

Seth Clearwater was there, too. The surprise to see the sand-shaded wolf was considerable, but it melted in a flash, because Nessie called to me.

"Jacob! I can't let him have her! I'm sorry! I have to get her safe! I have to!"


	19. Jacob: I never wanted this to happen

**A/N: How did Joham and Nahuel get past the perimeter? This is my take. One, we don't get their POV, but I figure they're sneaky. So, they could have, as Merina 2 suggested, come in via the water, where vampires have the advantage, though I'm not sure how long Nahuel could hold his breath. Sam and Jacob had only begun to patrol so it is also possible that J & N could have made their way in and waited before the patrols happened. **

**I'm sorry. I didn't have my villains do a classic expository monologue. They're very old (especially Joham) and used to skulking. **

**There are twenty chapters and an epilogue to A NEW MORNING, so we're just about wrapped up. Sorry I didn't get 18 posted earlier, but our internet "had issues" and I didn't get it back for 30 hours. (Yes, I went through withdrawal. Ack!)**

**Thanks for all of the reviews, the questions, and for READING. :) ~LJ**

_**19. Jacob**_

I never wanted this to happen.

I heard Nessie's promise and my heart almost stopped before I even saw the bloodsuckers. Yes, _bloodsuckers_. Those vampires drank the blood of human prey and I hated them. Hated them with all the passion of my heritage, with all the personal animosity in my body. _Hated them_. Before I saw them, Nahuel on a truck and Joham in a tree, I heard them and was ready for the fight. The fight I knew would come. The fight I knew I would _win_. Because the alternative was unthinkable.

I reached the cars at the same time as Sam. Right as Quil phased and leapt to save Claire. Right as Nessie was preserved from her own idiocy by her parents.

Right when Joham showed off his prize: Emily Uley. And inferred that Emily would make great half-vampire babies.

Of course, no one else knew _that_, except the pack. Sam knew, though, and his thoughts to me were scattered, babbling for a heartbeat before they focused. His need for support and my need to help crossed whatever mental boundaries we had had to that point.

And I heard him in the old way, the same-pack way. The same way I knew he heard me.

He wanted Joham's life. I wanted Nahuel's. It was a fair division. All of this was decided as we drew shoulder to shoulder, two Alphas and two leeches who didn't know they were slivers, yet. We growled, the menace thick between us as we made slow steps toward our designated targets. Quil was whining, his fur stiff as he circled Nahuel, trying to get the best angle that would not hurt Claire.

Seth Clearwater was there, too. The surprise to see the sand-shaded wolf was considerable, but it melted in a flash, because Nessie called to me.

"Jacob! I can't let him have her! I'm sorry! I have to get her safe! I have to!"

I threw back my head and howled! Anger, grief, sorrow and the need to rend and claw had my fur standing on end as the familiar stink of Edward and Bella, the horrible stench from Nahuel and Joham blended with the sudden, enormous tension in the air behind us.

Everyone – man, woman, child, those in the know and those who had previously been ignorant – were able to see us. Everyone. Still, that didn't matter. Not nearly so much as the need to get Emily back alive. To rescue little Claire. And to get my Nessie as far away from Nahuel and his continuation of his father's science project as possible before I killed him.

_Sam! _I heard Sam's intention before he moved. I felt his manic possessiveness. His determination that the bloodsucker would _not_ hurt his Emily. No way. All of it thrummed in his heartbeat, flooded his mind. And –

I darted for Nahuel in that moment, too. To knock the vamps off their feet and dislodge the girls was our first priority. We could not rip these things apart if the girls were being held. As I moved, so did Nessie, leaping high, surprising even her own mind-reading father with the sudden decision to act. I hit Nahuel, but he was watching Nessie and saw my dark fur a fraction of an instant after he watched light-skinned Nessie leaping, the fire behind her. I saw the image, too, but could not afford the breath to be amazed and dazzled by it; I had to _nail_ that bloodsucker.

I hit him low, at his knees. He was not a practiced fighter, clearly. He stiffened and his hold on Claire did not make adjustments for the jolt I gave his half-human form. The crashing sound Nessie made as she landed on the hood of the pick-up truck distracted him too, so that Claire half-rolled from his arms and Nessie was able to jerk her the rest of the way and leap off the truck again.

"Renes –!" Nahuel tried to call after her but he didn't get to finish the sound of her name. She was clear and he was mine. I lunged with my teeth first and caught his leg, dragging him down to the earth, wedged between the cars. I held off on the death-blow, though. I had him. I was sure of it. I knelt on his body, pinning him most thoroughly to the ground and watched Sam, for his attack was underway.

Joham was wiser than his son. He never took his eyes from the enormous black Alpha male that was circling him. In his arms, under his diamond-hard fingers, Emily held absolutely still, I could see her lips move, but heard nothing over Sam's thick growl.

Quil was now guarding Claire and Nessie, Seth guarding the rest of the people, standing in front of them with every sense alert, and I was only trying to decide if I should finish off Nahuel before Sam got to Joham or if I should hold him in reserve.

_Edward! Make him an offer. He wants a trade? Trade his only son for Emily!_

I didn't take my eyes from Joham and Sam, but heard Edward directing Bella to knock Nessie out, if necessary, to get her away from these guys. Nessie was still holding Claire, since Quil wasn't phasing back human just yet. Too dangerous.

Edward's voice rose over the slowly-building tumult from the people. "Joham! Jacob has so far spared your son's life. He offers you a trade. Nahuel for Emily."

"Oh, and you'll just let me go?" Disbelief and sarcasm rippled in the vampire's voice.

"You have not yet _harmed_ a human or a wolf. I would let you go," Edward promised. The ripping snarls of the pack, however, likely negated Joham's safety.

It was uncertain what would have happened. Nahuel, who had been writhing in pain beneath me, stiffened during the conversation.

Two things happened at the same moment. One of them I saw.

Sam, taking advantage of Joham's momentary distraction by Edward, lunged to the bloodsucker holding his wife, mimicking my earlier trick and trying to knock Emily free from his hold. Emily, more prepared to escape than Claire could have been, twisted just enough to get free of the vampire before Sam's teeth closed around his middle. That's what I saw.

What I didn't see, but what Edward did, was that Nahuel was making his own bid for freedom. Edward didn't see a motion, but he did see his intention and my future father-in-law threw himself between Nahuel's venomed teeth and my furry hide before the half-vampire could actually bite me. That would have been bad. Very bad.

Nessie screamed, Bella shouted her name and Edward's. Edward winced, growling low in his chest.

_Allow me?_ I asked him with overt politeness so broad it bordered on humor.

Rubbing at his stinging arm, he glared at Nahuel until the half-vamp's head was torn off by my own teeth.

A satisfactory end, perhaps. But only in one way.

For only yards from us, Emily was shrieking, her cries echoing over the cars. Edward and I leapt as if we had one mind. Leapt from the corpse of one half-vampire to the half-corpse of a full vampire.

And the body of my brother, Sam Uley, a hole punched in his chest in a grisly display of instant death.

I howled and suddenly all the rest of the pack – all of them – were wolves.

"Mom! Get Emily!" I heard Nessie shout. A pale blur blew by me and Emily disappeared from view.

Then, the pack converged as a whole, tearing apart Joham's quivering body until there was nothing left but slivers, which Edward gathered up and threw into the bonfire. I took Nahuel's head, followed by his body.

Neither of them would ever, _ever_ father a child that would kill its mother. Ever. I felt intense satisfaction over that. Nessie was safe and so were who knew how many others.

It wasn't until we were done with these grisly chores that the pack paid any heed to the humans that surrounded us, frightened, amazed, weeping...

_We need to get out of here. Hit the forest_, I thought as I made a quick dash to check on my Nessie. Tears streamed down her face as she leapt on my back, not even waiting for me to kneel to pick her up.

_Let's go! Give me those kids! _Seth's voice was in my head. His presence there was unsurprising; he had been in my pack up until a few months ago. No, the shock was when all the other voices joined his in my mind. Voices I hadn't heard in a long time.

_Sam. We need to bring him. And Emily! Claire! And Kim... _ They claimed their wives, their families, and we ran from the scene, our loved ones on our backs and the backs of our brothers, into the dark woods.

Secrecy was, of course, beyond us now. But it didn't matter. What mattered was that the pack was in the woods. Together. And we howled in grief over our lost brother, Sam. Emily, for her lost mate.

Wives and children, too, needed comforting and reassurance as they sought to help Emily. And there were two emotion-stilled vampires who stood on the outskirts of our expanded circle. They had no tears to shed, but I knew that Edward would mourn the passing of Sam Uley, though it had been years since the alliance had been active.

The women and children continued to cry or ask questions of one another. I realized that something had to be done. We had to handle the situation left at the bonfire. We'd have to meet with the council, figure out how to keep this tight.

_Yes, you're right, Jacob. We can't endanger anyone else. Our secret is out. We'll have to either explain or lie. Can they handle the truth? Should they? _

We shared ideas, thoughts, possibilities. Embry moved to stand at my right shoulder, Quil, Claire on his back, on my left. Nessie was still on my back, clinging to me as if she dared not let me away from the reach of her skin.

_Who will stay with Emily and the children tonight?_ I asked my brothers. Embry volunteered immediately. He had never married and had no family to comfort. Good.

_Rachel and I will take the kids if that'll help Emily_, Paul offered. My sister wasn't there to speak for herself.

_Emily can decide. _

_We need to get back. I need to get back. I still don't know what to say to them,_ I mused, half to myself. On my back, Nessie stretched to rest her hand between my ears. I saw the rapid deaths of the two vampires from her perspective, with an urgent accent, and saw that, oddly enough, it had gone so quickly that it is possible it would be vaguely misinterpreted by the onlookers. _Jared, will you speak to everyone? You've been doing this the longest. _

His head shook from side to side._ No, it's not my place._ _What about Embry?_

_I can't. Gotta stay with Emily and the kids. _

_Quil? _

_And take Claire back there? Are you insane? She needs to get home! _

_Paul? _

My brother-in-law shook his muzzle at me with a rueful air. _If I don't get back to Rachel and your dad right away, I'm as toasted as the leeches. You go ahead, Jake. You're the Alpha._

I stiffened, Nessie stiffened even though she didn't hear Paul. The others _did_ hear and all of them swiveled to meet my eyes, now. Measuring me. Deciding. Without ceremony.

_Hey, no. Not me. I've been gone for years. I've got a home and I'm –_

_You're Ephraim's descendent_, Quil reminded me, nudging me with his shoulder. Nessie adjusted on my back; I could feel the muscles of her thighs contract and her backside shift.

_You're also really big_, Brady said. _And you killed that one. Tore his head off. I saw._

I stared at Sam's body, in the center of our circle. It was covered, now, by a blanket and a coat as well as by the moon-shadows of his wife and children. Shaking my head, I tried to back up and away from this. I had avoided the responsibility when Sam offered it to me, years and years ago.

I was born to be the Alpha. I had accepted that once. Accepted the identity without the responsibility. Sam was our Alpha and no one could have been a more conscientious leader.

_Jake. Jake! Jacob. Yes. _

The assent went around the circle. Subdued, because this was a sad time. There was a place inside me though, that felt the _rightness_ of it. That place of hollow power was filling with the willingness of the pack to follow. I inhaled through my nose, getting the scent of each member of my pack, of their families, of Nessie, too, as she became one of them – a part of our larger family. Then I exhaled roughly and felt a tremor move over my fur.

_All right. I'll do my best._

They stared at me for a long silent moment, all together. Then, each member of my pack turned to their families for a moment before heading to the forest to phase human and see what they could do to comfort Emily and their loved ones.

_Edward?_ I called as I moved slowly away – _my_ loved one was on my back, even now – _Did you get that?_

His stern, pale face moved and our eyes met. He nodded once. I nodded back and ran, with Nessie, into the cover of the forest.

**~*~*~**

I was going to title this chapter Chief Jacob, but I thought that'd give it away too early.

**Excerpt from Chapter 20:**

Without another word, he stepped down, helped me down, and we left the bonfire, rows of people parting before Jacob as if – as if he were Moses or a President or someone on that order. Speechless respect surrounded him.

I was really kind of in awe of him myself.


	20. Nessie: And the bride wore white

**And this is it, the end of the story – saving the epilogue, which I should be posting later today or tomorrow. Thank you, again and again, for reading. Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on the story, whether it was an "atta girl" or some doubt as to my direction. ;-) I have enjoyed it all.**

**No end note today, but I am going to ask if you, Readers, wish to see the epilogue today or tomorrow. So when you've read this, let me know. I'll comply with the wishes of the majority.**

**Thanks again! ~LJ**

_**20. Nessie**_

And the bride wore white.

I didn't start bawling until we were covered by the darkness. And even then, I tried to keep my sobs from being loud. I hoped to keep them to myself; Jacob had enough to deal with tonight. This morning. Whatever it was.

As we passed by my parents, I extended my hand to touch my mother's face, to send her my love. To my dad, I mentally shouted that I loved him. I thanked him for what he did for my Jacob. For being there, just being there. And then, I stayed with my fiancé because I knew he'd need me when he phased human.

I just didn't know exactly what had happened, back there, apart from the group mourning over Emily's husband, Sam. My heart ached for her, ached furiously. And I felt ashamed because I was so relieved it wasn't Jacob. My sobs were half-filled with that relief, that guilty joy.

Jacob stopped eventually, somewhere that wasn't our tent, and I understood that the night wasn't over, yet, and I cried harder, because I was just so tired. I felt wrung out. Twisted. Exhausted. And I knew that, no matter how I felt, my Jacob felt ten times as bad. And he still had something to do, apparently, because we weren't going back to our tent. Our little corner of the world, where I longed to get him and let him rest.

I was with him as soon as he was back in his skin, my arms around him, holding him while he shook with the aftermath of the fight, the death, and whatever it was that had gone on with the wolves.

We sank to the cold ground. _ I'm so sorry_, I showed him with memories of me saying just that, kneeling next to him. He tugged me to his lap and I repeated it in his mind again and again, pressing my lips to his throat, wiping his cheeks with my fingertips. I couldn't speak aloud, just then. I just _couldn't_.

"He'll never make another child kill its mother," were Jacob's first words to me, rasped in a rough voice into my ear.

That he remembered my earlier words pierced me, as if I could never be worthy of him. How could he remember _that_, when so much else had happened that day? I pressed my hands to his face and shared that with him, as well as my perspective on the circle of the wolves, with the _Why?_ accent.

His arms tightened about me as he seemed to curl himself around me like a blanket, like a shield. "I totally wasn't expecting that," he murmured against the skin under my hair at the back of my neck. "I had to say yes, honey. I couldn't _not_ say yes."

I pressed his face with my forehead, replaying what he said and adding the _What?_ to it.

"Alpha, Nessie."

I couldn't speak. Not a word. My throat was thick with the accumulated pain of the night, with Jacob's obvious sorrow, with the images of death. So I shared a picture of him with the small pack he had in New Hampshire, back when Mom and Dad were getting degrees at Dartmouth. _Like this?_ I wondered silently.

He lifted his head and unwound himself from around me to look me in the eyes. His were ancient under his angled brows. Gently, he traced my face with the tips of his fingers. "This is my home," he whispered in a sudden rush. "You will always be my Nessie, and you are the _most important reason_ for my heart to keep beating. Always. But I have to ask you to stay here. At least for a while."

I found the memory from earlier in the day, where I told him I wanted to do just that. And I showed him his earlier reaction, too. I smiled a little while I did that and pushed the words out. "I love you. And, if I'm with you, I can be anywhere." A little confused, maybe, but I knew my Jacob would understand. He always understood.

Thoughtfully, he seemed to look past me, past us, past even this horrible night and into the future. While he did so, his warm lips brushed lightly along my hairline. "I need to get back to the bonfire. See what they're thinking. Try to fix this. Meet with the elders. That kind of thing. Could go on 'til morning."

"What do you want me to do?"

I was astonished when he relaxed enough for half a tired chuckle. "I want you on the next plane to Vegas," he murmured. "But. Would you settle for a quick trip to a courthouse?"

"Tomorrow," I suggested. "I mean, you know, we'll figure that out tomorrow. Let's do the bonfire thing first, like you said."

His kiss was hard and fast with the necessity of the moment. "Your dad has already filled your mom in, I'm sure. I'd like him to come with, if he's willing."

"To Vegas?" I wondered, easing myself from his lap and blushing as I turned a little away while he slid into his jeans.

"No! For that, I'd still like him to be thousands of miles away..."

The momentary lapse into such a pleasant topic was over, though, as we took off at a run back to the bonfire. _Dad!_ I called silently. _We're going to the bonfire. Will you meet us there, please? _

There were clusters of people at the fire, the stench of the burned vampire shreds still lingered in the air. I smelled fear, there. Heard murmurs of shock. Of wonder. And even of confirmation, by those who knew. A very old, old man approached Jacob. The wrinkles about his face said that he had seen too much sorrow, but the spark that I could see in his black eyes told me that he was still ready to meet the morning.

"Jacob Black."

"Quil Ateara," Jacob said, his voice layered with respect. I blinked. Not the Quil I knew, so this must be a grandfather or great-grandfather. "I'm so sorry about Sam," he said. "I know how important he was to you and to the tribe."

The old man bowed his head, nodding, leaning on a thick walking stick that came up to his stooped shoulders. "Yes, but Jacob, he went with honor, doing what he was born to do. And that is worth a story of his own at a fire."

Jacob nodded and I gripped his hand, reminding him that he wasn't facing this alone. He cleared his throat. "Quil, this is my fiancée."

The elder peered at me through the folds around his eyes. I offered him my hand to shake, remembering Emily's advice. "It is an honor to meet you, sir. I'm Nessie."

One heavy hand took mine and – as poor Emily had predicted, maybe – his brow lifted in surprise and even approval. "Good, good. Welcome."

We were interrupted. "Sweetheart," my dad murmured, touching my shoulder. "Jacob. What can we do?" He nodded briefly at Quil Ateara the Elder whose expression stilled for a heartbeat. They exchanged the briefest of nods in greeting, the air between them thick with unspoken years.

Jacob met Dad's eyes, and I figured he was telling him what he needed. I exchanged a glance with Mom, before offering my condolences to the old man that Jacob so obviously held in respect. He accepted my words before telling Jacob to come see him later that day. There would be a council in three days' time.

I turned to Mom and pressed my hand to her face, replaying what she had done, with thankfulness wisping throughout for her. "This is just so hard," I concluded after a moment.

Suddenly, after a low-voiced conference with my father, Jacob surprised me and Mom both. He leapt to one of the log-benches around the still-burning fire. No one was too close to the fire, now, but no one had been able to leave. I had the impression, actually, that others had come to see what was going on, this New Year's Eve.

I didn't think about the additions much. It was too awe-inspiring – truly – to see Jacob, braced on the log, facing everyone, hands raised to focus people's attention. "You have seen something wild, tonight, right?" Questions were fired at him, in old voices and young, by men and women, and even a little boy's whine. Jacob nodded. "Sure, sure. Of course you want to know. And I am going to tell you..." He smiled at me a little, a bit of acting that I had to appreciate, and spread his smile to everyone else. "It's a secret, so come in close. Come on. A legend of our people that goes back generations..."

Behind me, Mom whispered, "He's a natural."

"I know," I murmured, unable to take my eyes from his gleaming skin and intense expression. I had some idea what it was costing him and I wished I could run right up and wrap my arms around him for support and all the love I had for him.

But that wasn't my job, I reminded myself with a smile of my own. My job was blankets and food... Later.

Aided by some of the returning members of the wolf pack, now in their human forms, surrounded by their families, and with the added weight of the tribal elders, the questioning, curious crowd gathered close to one another. Close to the fire. Close to the legends that surrounded them.

"Our people have lived here on the Olympic Peninsula for generations without counting," Jacob began, his voice husky, but penetrating.

I knew the stories of the shapeshifters. The stories of the Cold Ones. These were legends Jacob had told me when I was still very small, but always in such a way as to let me know that he held me to be apart from the terrifying monsters in his histories. The people here, now, as the old year made room for the new, were not so inclined, perhaps.

"... And we kept the secrets, generation after generation, teaching the young leaders what they would need to know... The descendants of the first shapeshifters..."

Glances back down the rise, to where the cars were parked reminded me that the people here, tonight, would be needing explanations for what they had seen. Would need to know that what had happened was necessary. I felt sure that whatever my father had told Jacob was contributing to Jacob's pacing of this storytelling session. The passing on of traditions and legends and the duties of the wolves of the Quileutes.

I listened too, as Jacob called to his brothers as proof of the legends, and tied them to every member of the Nation. To the children who were here and to old ones not able to be with us. It was really impressive, I thought. The memories were vivid of the wolves standing between dangerous kidnappers and the innocent children of the tribe. It was an image that would be seared into the minds of all who had seen it.

"...So remember!" Jacob insisted, still balanced on the log, still standing as a gleaming shadow-man, almost, as if it weren't just his voice that was speaking, but the voices of all those who had come before him. "Remember! They looked terrifying, I know. We all know. And you may have heard ... other stories. At the movies or on TV. But know that the reality is both more humane and more haunting than Hollywood. The reality is that we, those who have had to divide our lives to protect you, our family and friends and tribe, exist only to protect. Only to help. Only to be there in case there is danger that can be fought no other way. Like tonight."

Then, to my total surprise, he beckoned to me. Right there, in front of everyone. I didn't think of ignoring him, of course, but I felt odd, to be singled out in front of everyone.

"This is my fiancée, Nessie. She was the girl that the Cold Ones were seeking tonight."

In my head, I apologized to my dad; he was one of the Cold Ones. He shook his head gently at me, a smile tugging his lips to one side. I had the impression he understood and was even vaguely amused by my need to apologize. Of course, I was one of the Cold Ones myself. Even if I ran hot.

"The Cold Ones that hunt humans." Anger, now, surrounded us. Layer upon layer of dawning belief and a rising camaraderie that I wondered if Jacob even knew he was generating. And I wondered, too, if he was still bouncing stuff off my dad. They had that intense battlechief thing, still, I knew. I just didn't know how far it extended!

"Those Cold Ones sometimes have hobbies. And the ones you saw tonight had one particular one. One I hated. One my Nessie hated as well. They sought, you see, to create a new race. One that was half-human, half-vampire. This usually kills the human mother chosen. They had chosen Nessie."

Outrage, justification, and expressed horror rode up and down a wave. I blushed. Jacob enveloped my hand in one of his. "Sam Uley, our friend and brother, fulfilled his duty, fulfilled his heritage, and saved his wife from the monster that threatened her, threatened my future wife, and threatened who knew how many more women. Sam Uley was a hero, out of legend. And he will be –" Jacob's voice broke, suddenly and my eyes burned for him. I touched his cheek as any woman in love might, but shared with him another memory of the two of us chosen to reassure him. Inhaling strongly, he tossed his head and met the captivated faces in front of him. "And he will be remembered."

Without another word, he stepped down, helped me down, and we left the bonfire, rows of people parting before Jacob as if – as if he were Moses or a President or someone on that order. Speechless respect surrounded him.

I was really kind of in awe of him myself.

Right after the bonfire – when the pride and awe in my awareness were still rising – I shook Billy Black's hand _and_ growled at him. It took _both_ before he was ready to give his son his blessing. Rachel begrudgingly offered us the spare room again, but Jacob refused. He had a place for his bride, he told his sister.

"Your bride?" she snapped, glaring at me openly. "Did I miss the wedding?"

"Do you want to?" he shot back.

She didn't make an answer and I resolved that, though I was not a coward, I did not want to spend the first weeks of my new life under the same roof as Rachel. Even if my "roof" was made out of nylon and my front porch was a tarpaulin, it would be better than this. When Jacob turned to me, I gently laid my hand on his jaw and showed him that, and showed him an imagined vision of us, together, there in our tent. I could feel the tension leave him immediately as he wrapped his arm around me.

"We'll be fine, Rachel," he murmured, keeping his eyes on mine. "Thanks."

We left Jacob's old house and just started walking. I didn't know where he was taking me. I didn't really even care. He was holding my too-short hand in his, squeezing it every so often with a thought he might have had. The day, the night, was catching up to me as we walked and walked, there in the darkest hour before the sun would lighten the eastern sky.

"Jacob?"

"Yeah?"

"I – I have to ask you something."

He stopped mid-step and turned to face me with his whole body, his whole mind. "What is it, Nessie? Did I even remember to tell you how amazing you were? How brave you were? And how I almost _lost my mind_ when I heard you talking to that bloodsucker? Nahuel?" His voice moved from husky tenderness to a more harsh rasping as he pulled me tight against him. "And if you ever, _ever_, put yourself in that kind of danger again, I'll – I don't know. Something. Find that lake and dump you in it. I thought my heart was going to stop. Right there."

"Oh, and I'm supposed to be totally okay with you lunging after some deadly creature who could have _poisoned_ you? I know all about how strong and fast you are, Jacob Black, but he could have killed you!" I guessed, though, that my words lost their angry effect entirely because I couldn't seem to keep my hands from his shoulders, from tracing the strong line of his collarbone, from caressing the heated skin on the sides of his throat.

Alpha of the pack, he was. A spokesman for the tribe, maybe, too. But still, he was _my Jacob_ when he bent his head to mine and silenced my mouth with his, making me lose track of what I had wanted to ask him. Without a word, he picked me up in his arms and carried me back through the woods, until we crossed a scent-trail I recognized as our earlier one. Back, we tracked it. Back to the tent.

He all but fell on the air mattress and I fell right next to him, my eyes sliding shut as I pillowed my head on his shoulder. His soft snores followed immediately and I don't remember anything else until a strange scratching sound awakened me.

It wasn't the sound of an animal; there was no heartbeat on the other side of the tent wall. I stiffened, wondering. Then I heard, "Her heart jumped; she's awake."

"Aunt Alice?" I whispered, sniffing. I smelled mist and green – so many types of green – and then, I caught the scents of my family. _All_ of my family. They must have been on the next flight out of Rio or something, right behind my parents. Honey and cinnamon and fresh cotton and roses and coconut...

Barely able to move out of Jacob's arms, I did, trying not to wake him as I rolled off the air mattress and practically through the zippered door. Still dressed in jeans and a now-wrinkled shirt, I brushed myself off and tried to decipher the collected smiles in the line that extended from Grandpa Carlisle on the right to Aunt Alice on the left. They were each holding something behind their backs.

"Mom?" _Dad?_

Wordlessly, but beaming in tangible satisfaction, my family brought out eight individual gifts. Three blankets, four baskets of food, and one gift bag tied with a white satin ribbon.

"You said he wanted his bride to wear white," Aunt Alice said, a twinkle in her amber eyes as she dangled the bag from her tiny marble finger.

I laughed a little hysterically – like the teenager I guessed I maybe still was, somewhere – until the tears spilled from my eyes and until Jacob woke up and emerged to be roundly congratulated.

We were married before the mists lifted, in an enormous clearing, surrounded by the Council of Elders, the Cullen Clan and Jacob's surviving brothers and their families. We exchanged individual woven blankets for one enormous blanket to bind us as husband and wife. I brought the baskets of food into our tent, and we were blessed by Old Quil Ateara and even a local priest of one of the churches on the reservation. We promised to love one another all of our lives together, through all that would be gained and all that would be lost. Through happiness and sorrow and in sickness and in health. A strange blending of traditions, but it felt perfectly right.

For that morning, the sorrow from the night before was set aside. For that day, we celebrated quietly. That day, we became Jacob and Nessie Black.

That night, the bride did indeed wear white. But not for long.


	21. Epilogue Jacob

**A/N: Recently replaced the former epi with this improved one that was posted on Twilighted. I just changed a couple of minor details…**

**Thanks to everyone who has read this story! ~LJ**

**Epilogue**

Nessie beamed at me, her expression proud and gloating. I loved it when she looked at me that way; it never got old. The idea that she thought I was worth _gloating_ about still blew me away. She was the miracle, here. I was just the lucky werewolf that imprinted on her.

"That's the last one," she whispered, hugging me in her joy. "Now all the buildings are completely solar. The wind turbines are running and the collectors are all wired to the batteries at our power station. I'm so excited!"

As soon as the whole Alpha Wolf thing was absorbed by La Push, I was nudged into a new leadership role by the community at large, kind of like a de-facto tribal chief. To me, it was unsettling. For my Nessie, though, it was an opportunity to help my people. Now her people. Hers and our children's.

There was no denying that the Quileute Reservation had been strapped for cash and resources. There was no denying that we were a proud people. But there was no denying my Nessie when she persuaded the Council that harnessing the power of the sun was not charity. Capturing the wind's power wasn't taking a hand-out. Taking advantage of these alternative power sources was wisdom as old as the world. All she wanted to do, she said, was make that power accessible to the Reservation. Expensive? Yes. But money was, quite literally, no object.

There she stood, my ring on her finger, standing proud before the Elders. We still lived in our tent even then. Esme was finessing designs for our house – a project made all the more difficult because Nessie wanted it to blend in while the Cullens wanted it to reflect the love and luxury of her family – and Nessie was sure that she wanted to go with alternative power, just for starters. It would be an example, she told Esme, an example that she could share with the rest of the people to benefit them all.

Of course, they agreed. She was my wife. And I was – somehow – the new leader. Besides, word got out that she was pregnant...

I hugged her back now, falling naturally into the delighted brown gaze that had so captivated me many years before. Over her shoulder, another set of big brown eyes caught my attention. Our daughter's. And over my shoulder, a set of eyes caught Nessie's. Our son's. Samuel William Black was three years old, his sister Sunrise Marie – Samuel named her – just eight months. As a family, we connected there in front of the Call's home.

Emily had insisted that their home be the last one to benefit from Nessie's renovations; she didn't want any favors. Embry had volunteered the night that Sam was killed to watch over Emily and the kids. That arrangement had been mutually beneficial, with Embry moving in and staying in a spare room, providing emotional support for Emily, a firm voice for the children, and she cooked for him and understood the whole shapeshifter thing. He never imprinted on her, which was something Nessie told me Emily privately had worried about a couple of years ago, but their mutual care-giving and care-taking had...changed.

Embry fell in love with her. I had a sneaking suspicion, to be honest, that he might have loved Emily anyway. It was not something I ever let seep into my private thoughts when phased. Emily might not care for him in the same way she had loved Sam, but she did love him and appreciated him and it was, for all of them, enough.

"Good work, Ness," I whispered, dropping a kiss to her forehead while our children giggled.

"No, you did the work, Jacob. I just smiled a lot."

I laughed, straightening up and rolling Sam off my back, between my arms and down to the ground. "Go on, son. Go make sure all the switches work."

"Got it, Dad," he said, tearing off into the house, looking more like a kindergartner than a three-year-old. No one mentioned that anymore. The village protected us and we protected them.

Nessie kissed the skin on my arm before lifting a hand casually to my face. She showed me her memories of me through the years here at the rez. Memories of laughter, sweat, hard work, babies, and bonfires. Memories that surrounded us. "I love you, Jacob Black," she murmured.

I turned and lifted both her and Sunrise in my arms to bring them to my eye level. "Damn good thing, because you're stuck with me."

"Daddy, that's not a good word," Sunrise said.

Shocked, I lost my grip on Nessie so that she slid down my body.

"Nessie?"

My wife turned so that I could ease Sunrise out of her baby-carrier. "Her first sentence."

I shook off the shock, remembered whose daughter she was and felt a smile tugging at my lips. "Wow."

"You said the Imprint would be perfect," Nessie reminded me, staring with awe at our little girl. "Never knew exactly what perfection was, until we had kids."

"Dad! Everything's good! Can we go home now, I'm starving!" Sam bolted from the house, followed indulgently by the Call family. "Please?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, son," I managed to say. Cradling Sunrise in my arm, my other around my wife, with Sam bouncing in his eagerness to run at full speed all the way home, I was laughing inside. And wistful. Happy and proud and thoughtful.

Until my Nessie glanced up at me through her thick lashes. "Hungry, Chief Jacob?" she murmured, her voice husky.

"For you, always," I assured her. "I have it on good authority that we're still thousands of miles away from a certain mind-reading vampire..."

Nessie blushed. Sam stopped in his tracks and looked up at me with green eyes Bells had told me were Edward's back in his human life. "Hungry for Mom? Huh?"

"We'll tell you when you're older!"

Life... Life is good. Weird, but yeah –good.

**The End**


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